| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %% Trope names NEVER go in spoiler tags for any reason. If the name of the trope is a spoiler, either don't add the example at all or embed it as a pothole from another example. Read Administrivia/HandlingSpoilers for further details. |
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| 4 | |
| 5 | [[WMG:[[center: [- '''Tropes for ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'''''\ |
| 6 | '''Tropes A to F''' | TheLegendOfKorra/TropesGToL | TheLegendOfKorra/TropesMToR | TheLegendOfKorra/TropesSToZ ([[ShipTease/TheLegendOfKorra Ship Tease]], [[ShoutOut/TheLegendOfKorra Shout-Out]], [[WhamEpisode/TheLegendOfKorra Wham Episode]])]]]]-] |
| 7 | |
| 8 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | [[folder:#-A]] |
| 11 | * TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: CGI[[note]]mostly provided by Creator/MovingPictureCompany's parent firm Technicolor S.A. during the first season[[/note]] is used for many things, including Satomobiles, Aang's statue in Republic City, Yue Bay, the police zeppelins, the airbending training gates, the boat Korra travels on, and for a brief shot in chapter 7, Korra and Asami. The most prominent and important example, though, is undoubtably [[spoiler: Kuvira's building-sized [[HumungousMecha mech suit]] in the series finale.]] |
| 12 | * TheAbridgedSeries: Varrick's planned biographical retelling of Bolin's life sounds more like something you'd see on Website/YouTube. |
| 13 | * AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Republic City has a massive underground tunnel network, home to both the Equalists and the city's homeless population. |
| 14 | * ActorAllusion: |
| 15 | ** [[WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes Not the first time]] Creator/LanceHenriksen (the Lieutenant) voices a baddie on the same side as one voiced by Creator/SteveBlum (Amon). |
| 16 | ** Creator/BarbaraGoodson once again voices a shaman who heals an injured young woman, using "spirit water". She even gave the character a very similar accent, to the one she gave to [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Mother Talzin]]. |
| 17 | ** Zaheer is a violent, dangerous anarchist, so naturally he's played by [[Music/HenryRollins Henry]] "[[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond Blow it all up!]]" [[Film/JohnnyMnemonic Rollins]]. [[spoiler: His VillainousBreakdown even has a Mad Stan vibe.]] |
| 18 | ** Zhu Li's surname "Moon" seems like a deliberate reference to Creator/StephanieSheh being the new voice of Usagi Tsukino in the Creator/VIZMedia dub of ''Manga/SailorMoon''. |
| 19 | * AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Triple Threat Triad. |
| 20 | * AdviceBackfire: Pema's advice to Korra on how to deal with her crush Mako doesn't exactly work out the way Korra hoped it would. |
| 21 | ** After Bolin realizes that a continued relationship with Eska is undesirable, he goes to Mako for advice. Mako suggests just breaking it off immediately. Eska threatens to feed him to piranhasharks. Then he turns to Asami, who suggests he tell her the truth. Eska decides to solve the problem by forcing Bolin to marry her. Finally, he takes Varrick's advice, which is to run like hell. [[WomanScorned Eska's having none of that.]] |
| 22 | ** Related to the event above, Bolin gets into a deep relationship with Opal. Varrick tries giving him advice, but Bolin remembers how the last time turned out and refuses. |
| 23 | * AnAesop: A major message of Book 4 is that fighting for what you believe in does not make it true. It comes across strongly when Bolin discovers that what he believed was right ended up harming others, even the ones he loves. |
| 24 | * AffablyEvil: |
| 25 | ** After it's revealed that Varrick is a CorruptCorporateExecutive, it's shown that his friendly and eccentric personality isn't a facade. |
| 26 | ** Zaheer, Ghazan, Ming-Hua and P'li are all ruthless terrorists, but each dips into this territory at some point or another. |
| 27 | ** Kuvira initially comes off as this. She doesn't force the fractured states to join the empire, she offers them a treaty and shows magnanimity. Act against her, however, and you will be dealt with harshly. |
| 28 | * AgainWithFeeling: Having been [[spoiler:stripped of her bending abilities by Amon,]] Korra discovers that she can now bend Air, something she'd been trying and failing to do throughout her life. Her reaction is as follows: |
| 29 | -->'''Korra:''' I can Airbend? ''[confidently]'' I can Airbend! |
| 30 | * AgeCut: In "Welcome to Republic City," four-year-old Korra affects an intense expression as she [[PlayingWithFire firebends]] directly into the camera, obscuring the scene with a burst of flame, which seventeen-year-old Korra disperses while wearing a matching expression. |
| 31 | * AirplaneArms: |
| 32 | ** The [[AntiMagicalFaction Equalist]] [[MageKiller chi-blockers]] in Book One occasionally display this trope. Korra seems to have adopted it as of Book Two. |
| 33 | ** Bolin adopts the comic variant prior to asking out Eska. |
| 34 | ** The Dai Li still do this. |
| 35 | * AlasPoorVillain: |
| 36 | ** By the end of the first season finale, even though [[spoiler:Tarrlok and Noatak]] did many horrible things, the revelations of their history and their tragic deaths ultimately made both of them feel like this even in spite of it. |
| 37 | ** Invoked by Korra in the series finale. [[spoiler:Even after everything Kuvira has done, Korra understands why her enemy went as far as she did, and what drove her, which ultimately leads to Korra convincing Kuvira to stand down and accept her punishment.]] |
| 38 | * AliceAllusion: When Korra enters the Spirit World, she encounters [[spoiler:Iroh]], who takes her to a cottage where she has tea and cake with him and a group of daffy spirits. Korra is informed, however, that the cake won't make her gain or lose weight (or ''grow and shrink'', as the case may be). |
| 39 | * AllAccordingToPlan: In "And the Winner Is..." when the government of Republic City refuses to close the pro-bending arena in response to his threat, Amon replies they are doing exactly as he planned. [[XanatosGambit His goals are furthered whether]] [[TheChessmaster they give in to his demands or not]]. |
| 40 | * AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Korra naturally falls for the dark, brooding, distant Mako instead of his cheerful, approachable younger brother Bolin. It doesn't last. |
| 41 | * AllThereInTheManual: |
| 42 | ** Nick.com's "[[http://www.nick.com/games/legend-of-korra-welcome-to-republic-city.html Welcome to Republic City]]" adventure game, which provides supplemental information not presented in the show itself. |
| 43 | ** Several items within the adventure game (particularly the history books at City Hall) recursively reference events detailed in the {{Interquel}} graphic novel trilogy ''ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise.'' |
| 44 | ** ''Animation Insider's'' [[http://i.imgur.com/fblRSXl.jpg family tree]] revealed the names and bender status of Korra's parents, as well as the faces and bender status of Tenzin's siblings long before they were revealed in the show. |
| 45 | ** [[http://korranation.tumblr.com/ Korra Nation]] has concept art, interviews and production details. |
| 46 | ** [[http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/ Bryan Konietzko's Tumblr]] has concept art and usually some accompanying information on character development. |
| 47 | ** Nick also has a genealogy of the Beifongs, in case anyone didn't know who was related to who. |
| 48 | ** The Art Book for Season Two goes into more details about the relationship between the Water Tribes. The Southern Tribe was founded by a group of discontents from the North. Eventually relations improved and the North was able to get the South to accept its authority as long as the South had autonomy and was allowed to have a Council of Elders for self-government. The Hundred Years War meant the South largely became independent until the end. |
| 49 | %% AllOfTheOtherReindeer is being discussed on the discussion tab. If you add it back before consensus is reached, it's an edit war, and will result in a ban. |
| 50 | * AllWorkVsAllPlay: |
| 51 | ** Bolin is All Play to Mako, who is All Work. |
| 52 | ** Also to an even greater extreme with Lin and Suyin, to the point of a thirty-year estrangement. |
| 53 | * AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: In "Turning the Tides," the Equalists seize both the Republic City government buildings and Air Temple Island, forcing everybody to flee. Doesn't last. Repeated by Kuvira with Zaofu and [[spoiler: Republic City itself in the GrandFinale, with similar results.]] |
| 54 | * AmazonBrigade: [[http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3et4454To1qbgksw.png The Red Sands Rabaroos]] are an all-female [[FictionalSport pro-bending]] team. |
| 55 | * AmazonChaser: |
| 56 | ** The old seafood-seller in "Korra Alone" seems ''very impressed'' by Avatar Kyoshi's amazing feats of strength. |
| 57 | ---> "Taking down a rhino-squid with one hand? Now ''that's'' the kind of lady I'd like to [[DoubleEntendre get to know!"]] |
| 58 | ** [[EmotionlessGirl Eska]], at least, appears to believe Bolin is one, as a result of their past experiences together. |
| 59 | ---> '''Eska:''' (''Observes [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Kuvira]]'') I see you have replaced me with a new girlfriend. [[AmicableExes Well done]]; she seems [[VillainCred very threatening.]] |
| 60 | * {{Americasia}}: |
| 61 | ** Republic City is more or less early-20th-century New York City crossed with Hong Kong. |
| 62 | ** The soundtrack is "1920s UsefulNotes/NewOrleans {{jazz}} [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace but if it were invented in China"]]. |
| 63 | * AmicableExes: |
| 64 | ** Mako and Asami after season one, and Mako and Korra after season two. It looks like Eska and Bolin have also managed this. |
| 65 | ** Tenzin and Lin Bei Fong are a bit of a subversion- originally, they ''weren't'' Amicable Exes, with Lin jealous of Tenzin's now-wife. After a few years, though, it looks like they've managed to get over it. |
| 66 | * AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:Korra talks about how she feels she still has so much left to do, before she and Asami go for a vacation in the Spirit World to close out the series.]] |
| 67 | * AnimalThemeNaming: All pro-bending teams follow the pattern of being named for in-universe MixAndMatchCritters. |
| 68 | * {{Animesque}}: Not as much as its predecessor due to the more realistic art style. Although, Creator/StudioPierrot, a company that produces Anime, was [[https://twitter.com/LeSeanThomas/status/294138765486731265 involved in the production of Book Two]]. |
| 69 | * AntiArmor: The Equalists use electric shock gloves to get around the armor of the Metal Bending police. |
| 70 | * AntimagicalFaction: The Equalists, Republic City's anti-bending and MugglePower movement in the first season. They believe benders use their ElementalPowers to oppress [[{{Muggle}} non-benders]], a belief strengthened by the presence of [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs bending gangs such as the Triple Threat Triads]] and [[TheMagocracy the five-bender city council]]. Their soapboxers promoted a revolution against the bending class, and fostered [[FantasticRacism hatred for benders]] in general, while their fighters used the same PressurePoint ''[[PowerNullifier chi]]''-[[TheParalyzer blocking]] techniques used by the original series' Ty Lee. |
| 71 | * AppealToForce: Korra threatens to kill a judge ''twice'', first in an attempt to get him to reduce a sentence from the death penalty, then to force him to annul the conviction entirely (ironically, after she'd asked Unalaq to give the accused rebels a fair trial). The judge was on the take anyway, but it's still a sign of her brute-force approach to solving problems. |
| 72 | * ArbitrarySkepticism: In "Long Live the Queen", the captain of the Earth Kingdom airship calls Korra insane because she is talking about a terrorist who she spoke to in the Spirit World. The Spirit World, however, is an established and accepted fact within the universe, with the Avatar serving as bridge between it and the mortal world. |
| 73 | * ArcNumber: |
| 74 | ** The number ten thousand is heavily featured in the "Beginnings" two parters. Wan means ten thousand, and he lived about ten thousand years before Korra. The Harmonic Convergence, a battle between Raava and Vaatu, occurs every ten thousand years. Vaatu boasts that he lived [[TimeAbyss ten thousand lifetimes]] before humans "crawled out of the mud". And of course, returning from the original series, we have Wan Shi Tong, "he who knows ten thousand things". |
| 75 | ** This has some context. If you're familiar with [[UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}} Taoist philosophy,]] you'll know that the number ten thousand is used as a shorthand for anything that is too great or numerous to count. In particular, "the ten thousand things" is used to refer to everything that emerged from the duality of Yin and Yang, which is... well, ''everything.'' |
| 76 | * ArcWords: "Light in the dark" in Book 2. The phrase, originally dropped casually by Unalaq in a seemingly metaphorical context, turns out to have quite a literal meaning of [[spoiler:Raava being reborn out of Vaatu.]] |
| 77 | * AreWeThereYet: In "Welcome to Republic City", the introduction of Tenzin and his family features his daughter Ikki asking this over, and over, and ''over''... |
| 78 | --> '''Tenzin:''' [''While son Meelo gums his head''] ''Yes'', Ikki. As I've been telling you for the last fifteen minutes, we are -- ''finally'' -- here. |
| 79 | * AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering: In "The Spirit of Competition," Bolin asks Mako what he thinks of the idea of asking Korra out. Mako responds that he likes her, but he's already in a relationship, prompting Bolin to clarify: |
| 80 | -->'''Bolin''': I was talking about a girlfriend for ''me''! Leave some ladies for the rest of us! |
| 81 | * ArmorPiercingQuestion: Mako asks one of Prince Wu after Kuvira usurps his position as ruler. |
| 82 | -->'''Mako:''' If you were an Earth Kingdom Citizen, do you think you're the kind of person you want as your king? What have ''you'' ever done for your people? |
| 83 | * ArmsDealer: Asami becomes a heroic example, selling Future Industries weapons and matériel to the South in the Water Tribe Civil War. She does believe in their cause and wants to help them, but the money doesn't hurt either. |
| 84 | * ArrestedForHeroism: |
| 85 | ** In "Welcome to Republic City", Korra's readiness to fight(and the collateral damage she causes) gets her pegged as a DestructiveSavior by the metalbender cops. |
| 86 | ** In chapter eight, "When Extremes Meet", Asami is arrested for trying to stop oppressive measures against non-benders. Tarrlok claims that her father's connection to the Equalists is the reason, and when Mako and Bolin try to come to her defense they are put in the slammer, too. Ultimately, Tarrlok admits directly to Korra that he is simply doing this to manipulate her and force her cooperation. |
| 87 | * ArtEvolution: Art director Creator/BryanKonietzko has discussed his evolution towards more realistic proportions and less oversized heads. This is particularly noticeable when redrawn original series characters appear as stills during the OpeningNarration. Far greater detail and more CGI is used, leading to a far cleaner and more realistic look than the original series. Book Two also includes minor detail improvements on most of the characters. However, Studio Mir for Books 3 and 4 brings out the cleanest looks simply by comparing how vibrant Asami Sato's coloring is shown compared to previous books. |
| 88 | * ArtisticLicenseGeology: The "platinum" used in the series is far too plentiful and strong to be analogous to real-world platinum. WordOfGod says that they intended it to be titanium, but didn't realize the mistake until it was too late in the production cycle. |
| 89 | * ArtisticLicensePhysics: Platinum is used as a convenient anti-metalbender material. Rarity aside, its density is never addressed: someone wearing platinum handcuffs should be struggling to even stand up straight due to its weight. Also, if platinum can't be bent due to its purity (lack of earth), then the same should also apply to [[spoiler:mercury]], even if the [[spoiler:mercury used to poison Korra]] toward the end of book three was an [[spoiler:organomercury]] with impure metals and earth contained in it. |
| 90 | * ArtShift: |
| 91 | ** The "Previously On" segments are delivered in a sepia tone. This changes for the Book 4 premiere, where they are instead given in black-and-white. |
| 92 | ** The story of the first avatar is animated to look like traditional Chinese guó huà art. |
| 93 | * AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Aang (goes with being the Avatar). It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Iroh's spirit left his body for the Spirit World]] upon his death. |
| 94 | * AscendedFanboy: |
| 95 | ** Zaheer is a villainous version, being very interested in Air Nomad culture but to a decidedly negative extreme. Then he got airbending. |
| 96 | ** New airbender [[MeaningfulName Otaku]], who was an Air Acolyte before he acquired the gift himself. |
| 97 | ** Bolin is a bit of a meta example, essentially being an in-universe Avatar: The Last Airbender fanboy. First, he has the most positive and fan like reaction to discovering Korra is the Avatar. Then he is the first to suggest creating a new Team Avatar. In season 3 he freaks out when he meets [[spoiler:Lord Zuko]] to the point that he looks like he wants to touch him before Mako pulls him back. Finally in season 4 when he meets [[spoiler:Toph Beifong]] he basically squees, declares her his hero and asks for a hug. He also has a habit of doing other things a fan might do such as asking "Who Lin's Dad?". |
| 98 | * AscendedFridgeHorror: All the fan speculation about what airbenders could do if they weren't pacifists is realized in Season 3, when [[spoiler:Zaheer kills [[AssholeVictim the Earth Queen]] by bending all the air out of her lungs, causing her to asphyxiate]]. |
| 99 | * AssassinationAttempt: |
| 100 | ** "Night of A Thousand Stars" sees a group of Waterbenders attempt to attack President Raiko, coinciding with his neutrality in the face of the Water Tribe Civil War. [[spoiler: It turns out the whole thing was staged by shady industrialist Varrick to anger Raiko into entering the war.]] |
| 101 | ** Northern Water Tribe Chief Unalaq is kidnapped by Southern Water Tribe Seperatists with presumed attempt to assassinate. |
| 102 | ** The main villain from season 3, Zaheer, rejects political leadership and his team have no qualms with casually killing a head of state. [[spoiler: They pull this off in "Long Live the Queen" by suffocating the Earth Queen on-screen and sending her ancient monarchy into anarchy; the finale sees them try the same trick again on Korra herself with only slightly less success.]] |
| 103 | ** The Earth Queen's spoiled nephew, Prince Wu, is constantly under-threat of this as the next-in-line for the Earth Kingdom throne. |
| 104 | * AssholeVictim: The Earth Queen is a tyrant who [[spoiler:forcibly conscripts airbenders]] in preparation for a war against the United Republic, and dines on endangered species such as sky bison, but [[spoiler:her death at the hands of Zaheer]] is particularly chilling and has dire side effects for the Earth Kingdom as a whole. |
| 105 | * AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: In "Light in the Dark" and "Kuvira's Gambit". |
| 106 | * AudibleGleam: In "Welcome to Republic City", when a ''bush'' manifests a BishieSparkle. |
| 107 | * AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: [[spoiler:Jinora getting her tattoos]] and being anointed as the newest Airbending master, the first in a generation. |
| 108 | * AwesomePersonnelCarrier: The Nick.com "Welcome to Republic City" game details the police force's armored trucks. |
| 109 | * AbusiveParents: Legend of Korra provides several examples of abusive parents. |
| 110 | ** Yakone was a cruel and perfectionist parent ([[spoiler: Not unlike Ozai from TLAB]]). Yakone rigorously trained both his sons in both Waterbending and Bloodbending. However, Yakone was particularly cruel and abusive to Tarrlok for the perceived weakness of the latter. When Tarrlok stood up to Yakone, the latter attempted to lay his hands on the former, before being subdued but Noatok. |
| 111 | ** Unalaq is shown to care little for his own children. |
| 112 | |
| 113 | [[/folder]] |
| 114 | |
| 115 | [[folder:B]] |
| 116 | * BackForTheDead: [[spoiler:Hiroshi Sato]] in the series finale. |
| 117 | * BackForTheFinale: Hiroshi and multiple Airbenders return in the finale. Many minor characters make cameos at [[spoiler:Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding.]] |
| 118 | * BackToBackBadasses: Korra and Lin fight Equalists posed this way in "And the Winner Is..." |
| 119 | * BadassAdorable: |
| 120 | ** Korra is an adorable teenage girl, but has been a very talented Avatar ever since she was four. |
| 121 | ** Tenzin's kids are very cute, yet much stronger than you'd expect them to be. |
| 122 | ** The best way to describe Bolin in two words would be "Badass Adorkable". He may be goofy, but don't underestimate him. |
| 123 | ** Post TimeSkip Opal definitely counts. She's just as adorable as she was three years ago, but much more badass and capable. |
| 124 | * BadassArmy: It takes more than a mere Avatar to impress Republic City's [[ExtraOreDinary metalbending]] police force. The Equalist chi-blockers are also formidable foes, skilled in martial arts, ambush tactics, and [[BadassBiker motorbike-riding]]. |
| 125 | ** Book 3 gives us the airbenders who escape Ba Sing Se. They manage to evenly hold their own against the Dai Li (a group who gave protagonists of the original series a ton of trouble) despite being inexperienced. In the GrandFinale, the entire New Air Nation makes a stand against Kuvira. |
| 126 | ** The Metal Clan's guards are excellent fighters, able to fight the Red Lotus to a standstill. Their skills carry over to Kuvira's army when most of them defect between Books 3 and 4. The very best troops stationed inside [[spoiler: Kuvira's giant metal war machine]] give Mako and Bolin trouble one-on-one; and they were the ''engineers'', not the combat specialists. |
| 127 | * BadassBoast: |
| 128 | ** Vaatu gets a good one: |
| 129 | --> '''Vaatu:''' [''casually swats Wan away''] 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!'' |
| 130 | ** Wan has a good comeback, though: |
| 131 | --> Haven't you heard the legends? [[PreAssKickingOneLiner I'm not a regular human anymore.]] |
| 132 | * BadassFamily: The Beifongs. Every single one of the Beifongs, from Toph down to Su's children, have been shown to be either incredible fighters or geniuses. |
| 133 | * BadassNormal: |
| 134 | ** Non-bender Asami is at least as effective a fighter as Bolin, Mako and Korra, and a better driver than any. |
| 135 | ** Plenty of villainous examples: the chi-blockers, Amon's mustached lieutenant, and Amon himself [[spoiler:until we find out he's actually a bloodbender who lied about his backstory.]] |
| 136 | ** Bumi - an old war vet - clearly takes after his uncle Sokka, and manages to keep up with his bending brother and sister. Until Book Three, where Bumi is one of [[EmpoweredBadassNormal the non benders to gain Airbending]]. |
| 137 | ** Likewise, Zaheer is repeatedly stated to have been a formidable foe and martial artist even before he gained airbending. |
| 138 | * BaddieFlattery: |
| 139 | ** In the finale "Endgame", Amon compliments Mako striking him down briefly with lightning bending, stating that it's the first time anyone has ever gotten the better of him. He says it's ''almost'' a shame to remove the bending of someone so talented. Almost. |
| 140 | ** In the finale of Book 3, "Venom of the Red Lotus", Ghazan compliments Bolin, who had [[spoiler:showcased his newly-learned Lavabending]], smirking as he realizes how he escaped the lava-filled air temple. His words: "Not bad, let's see what you've got!", with a genuine smile on his face, almost as if he enjoys the fight. |
| 141 | * BalloonBelly: In "The Spirit of Competition" Pabu gets one after joining Bolin for a night of binging on noodles. |
| 142 | * BatmanGambit: In "The Voice in the Night", Tarrlok arranges for a group of reporters to accost Korra at a party he is throwing in order to force her to join his anti-Equalist task force. When they accuse her of cowardice and abandoning her duty to the city, she responds by immediately joining the task force. |
| 143 | * BeamOWar: Happens between [[spoiler:the Dark Avatar and Korra's Spirit Projection]] in the Book Two Finale. |
| 144 | * BearHug: |
| 145 | ** In "Welcome to Republic City," Korra uses an EffortlessAmazonianLift to pick up Tenzin and his children to give them a group hug. |
| 146 | ** In "The Spirit of Competition" Mako unceremoniously grants his brother one in cheer when Korra pulls off an incredible "hat trick" single-handedly (much the same way he did in his introduction), and wins the match that gets them to the finals. |
| 147 | * BeatThemAtTheirOwnElement: In the first episode, just after arriving in Republic City, Korra confronts the Triple Threat Triad, a street gang made up of a waterbender, an earthbender, and a firebender, and easily curb stomps each member of the gang with their own element. |
| 148 | * BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. |
| 149 | ** In Korra's fight with Tarrlok, his icicle-rain move results in several visible cuts, and she spends the next episode covered in the same cuts and multiple bruises. |
| 150 | ** At the end of Book 3, Korra looks terrible as she recovers from her fight with Zaheer. She has bags under her eyes and looks rather sallow. Raiko even comments that she doesn't look so good. An early fight in Season 4 leaves her with several cuts and bruises. |
| 151 | ** Asami, however, plays it straight. Her hair is rarely ruffled and her make-up is always immaculate. |
| 152 | * BelatedLoveEpiphany: Mako only realizes he's [[BettyAndVeronica more in love with Korra than he is with Asami]] once Korra has been kidnapped by the Equalists. |
| 153 | * BeleagueredAssistant: Zhu Li, Varrick's assistant. She gets tired of this and eventually calls him on it. |
| 154 | * BelligerentSexualTension: Korra and Mako butt heads when they meet in "A Leaf in the Wind" and while infiltrating "The Revelation", [[SubvertedTrope but recognize]] that they have feelings for each other, and overtly act upon them once in "The Spirit of Competition". Though by the end of the second season, they both realize that this doesn't make for a healthy relationship and decide to just go back to being friends. |
| 155 | * BettyAndVeronica: |
| 156 | ** For Mako, sweet and gentle Asami is the Betty, while violent and borderline {{Tsundere}} Korra is the Veronica. |
| 157 | ** For Korra, goofy and excitable Bolin is the Betty, while serious and driven Mako is the Veronica. |
| 158 | ** In the {{Grand Finale}}, Korra is the Archie to Mako's Veronica... [[spoiler:and ''Asami'' is the Betty]]. |
| 159 | * {{BFG}}: Kuvira's Spirit Energy Cannon is so huge, it needs two parallel sets of railroad tracks to move The heroes exploit this by destroying the rail lines, hampering her ability to move it anywhere. [[spoiler:Kuvira circumvents this by attaching the cannon to a 25-story mecha suit.]] |
| 160 | * BigAnimeEyes: Despite taking place in the equivalent of TheRoaringTwenties, Ikki draws in a manner akin to 1990s shoujo manga, complete with big eyes. |
| 161 | * BigApplesauce: Republic City. |
| 162 | * BigBad: Each Book so far has at least one overarching villain. |
| 163 | ** Book One: [[KnightTemplar Amon]], the leader of the Equalists, who seeks to rid the world of benders entirely. |
| 164 | ** Book Two: [[EvilUncle Unalaq]] and [[EldritchAbomination Vaatu]] both [[BigBadDuumvirate share the title]]. Unalaq is technically Vaatu's [[TheDragon herald]], and while Vaatu is more powerful, they both share an equal amount of plot importance. |
| 165 | ** Book Three: [[BombThrowingAnarchists Zaheer]], a villainous airbender who leads a team of exceptionally powerful and dangerous benders. They're all part of the [[FantasticTerrorists Red Lotus]], an anarchist group dedicated to eliminating world leaders. |
| 166 | ** Book Four: [[TheEmpire Kuvira]], originally a regent to maintain balance after the Earth Queen's death, who usurps leadership from rightful heir Prince Wu. |
| 167 | * BigBadWannabe: Every Book but the last has one that competes with that main book's BigBad. |
| 168 | ** Book One has [[CorruptPolitician Tarrlok]], who aimed to have Republic City under his control, but Amon proved to be a bigger threat. |
| 169 | ** Book Two has [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Varrick]], who played both sides of the civil war pretty much just [[{{Greed}} for the money]]. Notably, he not only survives, he [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor eventually]] becomes a good guy. |
| 170 | ** Book Three has the [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Earth Queen]], a despotic, vain, selfish tyrant who is cruel to her citizens. She's the exact kind of world leader that Zaheer and the Red Lotus choose to stand against, [[spoiler:and Zaheer kills her when she proves to be unhelpful]]. |
| 171 | * BigDamnHeroes: |
| 172 | ** In "Turning the Tides", the Fire Ferrets come to Tenzin's rescue as he is attacked by Equalists looking to kidnap him, along with the rest of the council. Tenzin's three airbender children also rescue Lin during the attack on Air Temple Island. |
| 173 | ** The dragon-bird returns [[spoiler:to stop Unalaq from destroying Korra's soul]] in "A New Spiritual Age". |
| 174 | ** [[spoiler:Desna and Eska]] arrive to aid Bolin and his allies in holding out against the Dark Spirits. |
| 175 | ** Jinora arrives [[spoiler:to resurrect, or at least empower, Raava's light during Korra-{{Kaiju}}'s fight with Unavaatu.]] |
| 176 | ** The new airbenders in season three team up to rescue Jinora and Kai from bison poachers. |
| 177 | ** The new airbenders do this again at the end of season 3, when they [[spoiler:create a tornado to capture Zaheer and keep him from running off with Korra in captivity.]] |
| 178 | * BigFancyHouse: |
| 179 | ** The compound in the South Pole surrounds a huge mansion. |
| 180 | ** Tenzin and his family live on [[http://www.lastairbenderfans.com/cutenews/data/upimages/air-temple-island.jpg Air Temple Island]], a sanctuary in the city's bay. |
| 181 | ** The Sato mansion, which rivals the royal palaces of the Earth King and Fire Lord in terms of breadth and splendor. Book 4 offers us an exterior view. |
| 182 | ** In Book 3, Suyin Beifong's estate in Zaofu seems quite lavish. |
| 183 | * BigFriendlyDog: Naga on her good days. [[MamaBear But if you mess with Korra...]] |
| 184 | * BigFun: [[spoiler:Uncle Iroh]] returns, even more calm and cheerful [[spoiler:than he was in the original series]], and having regained all the weight he lost. |
| 185 | ** When Bumi is introduced in the series, he's actually fit. However after his retirement from the Army he undergoes a substantial weight gain. After the events of Season 3, he has lost it and is fit in Season 4. |
| 186 | * BigGood: Three characters qualify for the position: Raava, because she is the spirit of light and order and as such, the one the Avatars got their powers from to begin with; Korra herself, because she, as the Avatar, holds the power of Raava and is the protector of balance between mankind and spirits; and Tonraq, who is the leader of the Water Tribe Rebels in Book 2. |
| 187 | * BigNO: Multiple examples. |
| 188 | * BirdsOfAFeather: Bolin believes he and Korra are meant to be with each other because of this. She likes him, [[JustFriends but not in the same way.]] |
| 189 | * BirthDeathJuxtaposition: |
| 190 | ** While not a death, [[spoiler:Lin was [[LaymansTerms de-bended]] soon after Pema gave birth to her second son.]] |
| 191 | ** The birth itself isn't seen, but when Wan finally passes away at the end of Korra's flashback, a baby can be heard crying as the Avatar's spirit reincarnates for the first time. |
| 192 | * BishieSparkle: {{Parodied}} in "Welcome to Republic City", where there are {{bishie|Sparkle}} [[EverythingsBetterWithSparkles sparkles]] on the resident ''bush'' of a park-dwelling {{Hobo|s}}. |
| 193 | --> '''Gommu''': Took me a while to procure a bush that beauteous. [[http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1eg3hhREq1r1nmpao1_500.gif *bush sparkles*]] |
| 194 | * BittersweetEnding: |
| 195 | ** The two-part mini arc "The Beginning" ends on a bittersweet note. Wan seals Vaatu away, but has lost all of his mortal friends in the chaos. As he is about to seal the spirit world away, he says goodbye to his spirit friends as well. He then spends the next few decades trying to bring balance to the world. For all his efforts, he dies on an unnamed battlefield, clad in broken armor lamenting how one lifetime just wasn't enough. The only comforting thought was that Raava vowed to stay with Wan through all his lifetimes, starting the Avatar reincarnation cycle. |
| 196 | ** The Book Three finale has [[spoiler:the Red Lotus defeated, the new Air Nation intact and stronger than ever, and Jinora earn her arrow tattoos. But the Earth Kingdom is still in chaos in the wake of Hou-Ting's death, the Red Lotus are revealed to have numberless agents hiding and plotting their next move, and the ordeal has left Korra physically and emotionally broken. She's confined to a wheelchair (and has been for a couple weeks), barely reacts to anything around her, and wears an expression of utter despair. The final scene has her shed a single tear at Jinora's ceremony, right before the credits roll.]] |
| 197 | ** The series finale also counts, [[spoiler:despite being a much more triumphant one than any preceding BittersweetEnding. Kuvira was defeated and Varrick and Zhu Li have gotten married, but Republic City is in ruins, Asami's father dies just as he manages to make amends with her, and Bataar Jr. is heartbroken and devastated by Kuvira's betrayal as well as his own crimes.]] |
| 198 | * BlandNameProduct[=/=]FictionalCounterpart: |
| 199 | ** Most cars seen in the series resemble real-world 1920s and early 1930s cars, with a FarEast flair. For example: |
| 200 | *** The regular [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3b9p4fH6P1rs9cj9o4_1280.jpg Satomobile sedan]] is a 1920s [[http://motoburg.com/images/ford-model-t-sedan-03.jpg Ford Model T sedan]] with a pagoda roof. |
| 201 | *** The [[http://avatarthelastairbenderonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Police-Car.png police cars]] resemble [[http://blog.crowdspring.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/paddy-wagon.jpg Ford Model T paddy wagons]]. |
| 202 | *** The [[http://hdscreenshots.avatarspiritmedia.net/korra/104/0242.jpg truck in the background]] when Asami crashes into Mako resembles a [[http://www.svvs.org/philippines/1900_Yorkshire_Seam_Waggon.jpg Yorkshire steam wagon]]. |
| 203 | *** The [[http://nerdvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Legend-of-Korra-9.jpg obscured truck in Chapter 1]] and the [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier armored]] [[http://avatarthelastairbenderonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Polic-Truck.png police trucks]] look like a [[http://www.new.gwe2.org/images/mack1.jpg Mack]] [[http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss318/eymurphey/Mack%20AC%20Bulldogs/WWIMackFuelTanker.jpg AC Bulldog]] or [[http://www.american-automobiles.com/images3/1920-Texaco-Truck.jpg Napoleon]]. |
| 204 | *** Also from Chapter 1, the [[http://nerdvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Legend-of-Korra-9.jpg green car]] looks like the [[http://www.evmania.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/l-640-480-eabe69e1-0097-4d33-b112-9f8831fb0ff7.jpeg Milburn]] [[http://electricvehiclesnews.com/History/images/Milburn-Light-Electric.jpg Electric]]. |
| 205 | *** Tarrlok gave Korra a [[http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m33umcoJ6Y1rufegho3_1280.jpg roadster]] that features over a dozen design cues from expensive cars from the twenties to the forties, most noticeably [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/1932Auburn12-161_IMG_9402.jpg Auburn]]. |
| 206 | *** Asami's [[http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/30700000/Asami-s-Moped-avatar-the-legend-of-korra-30723856-500-587.jpg motor scooter]] looks mostly like a [[http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/07/vespa/source/9.htm Vespa]], which was a 1940s onward scooter, making it a bit of an "odd man out" among the "Oriental Jazz Age" aesthetic. |
| 207 | *** Shady Shin and the other Triple Threat Triad gangsters use a [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokhotrod_5021.jpg hot rod]] based on various [[http://image.hotrod.com/f/featuredvehicles/hrdp_1110_1927_ford_model_t_coupe/32946902+w640/hrdp-1110-01-o+1927-ford-model-t-coupe+DuPont-hot-hues-pacific-gold.jpg Ford T]] hot rods. |
| 208 | *** In Chapter 7, Asami takes Korra for a spin around the Sato test track in a race car resembling a two-seater version of the [[http://classic-car-history.com/classic%20motorsports%20pictures/vintage%20indy%20500%20cars/indy-500-miller-91-reardrive-car-left-side.jpg 1920s race cars]]. |
| 209 | *** Asami's CoolCar in Chapter 8 greatly resembles a four-seater version of either a [[http://www.seriouswheels.com/1950-1959/1953-Allard-J2X.htm 1950's Allard]] or [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Panoz_Roadster.jpg Panoz]] roadster from ''1992''. |
| 210 | *** Bryan confirmed in DVD commentary that it was based of the Allard. He discovered it while researching cars, and was so enamored by it he briefly investigated ''buying one''. |
| 211 | *** The van Mako crashed in "Rebel Spirits" looks just like a Citroen H van. |
| 212 | ** There are also plenty of buildings that resemble real-world ones. |
| 213 | *** The Future Industries factory resembles London's Battersea Power Station. |
| 214 | *** The tower Bolin took Korra to on their date resembles the Eiffel Tower and Tokyo Tower. |
| 215 | ** It's easy to miss, but Varrick refers to the coronation hotel as the [[http://www.fourseasons.com Four Elements]]. |
| 216 | * BlueWithShock: In "The Voice in the Night", Tenzin goes blue in the face when his son Meelo uses ''something'' as a toilet off-screen--at a high-society gala. |
| 217 | * BombThrowingAnarchists: The Red Lotus, the main villains of Book 3. |
| 218 | * BodyHorror: |
| 219 | ** When Tarrlok, Noatak, and Yakone bloodbend, their victims end up getting twisted into painful shapes. |
| 220 | ** Spirit possession in general - the experience is described as both this and MindRape, and leaves the victim in a ForcedTransformation at best, and dead at worst. |
| 221 | ** Korra being [[spoiler:poisoned by mercury. She remains completely conscious while feeling her body shut down]], and even endures nightmarish hallucinations. |
| 222 | ** For that matter,''Korra's hallucinations''. Zaheer's face crumbles off to reveal Amon's mask underneath, Ghazan's neck twists around as he morphs into Unalaq, and Ming Hua's spine contorts horribly as she turns into Vaatu. |
| 223 | * BookEnds: |
| 224 | ** The first season begins and ends at the South Pole. |
| 225 | ** Tahno's first and last scenes involve him deliberately mispronouncing the word "Avatar". |
| 226 | ** Korra's first and final encounters with Amon are pretty similar. Both times, she and Mako infiltrate a massive Equalist rally where Amon attempts to debend several people execution-style. They also both end with Korra saving Mako's life and Korra revealing something about Amon to Republic City. |
| 227 | ** "A New Spiritual Age" begins in the night with Tenzin fretting to Bumi and Kya about Jinora's safety in the Spirit World, before his siblings go to sleep and he takes guard duty. Bumi tells Tenzin to wake them up if something bad happens. At the end, it's daytime and Korra wakes up with a gasp, waking the trio [[FunnyBackgroundEvent (Tenzin fell asleep during guard duty)]] and [[spoiler: then Tenzin notices that Jinora's ''not waking up...'']] |
| 228 | ** [[GrandFinale "The Last Stand"]] manages to BookEnd ''[[Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender the entire franchise]]'' with its final shot, calling back all the way to "The Boy In the Iceberg". [[spoiler:A Southern Water Tribe girl (Korra/Katara) and a non-bender (Asami/Sokka) heading towards a massive pillar of light (the Spirit Portal/Aang's iceberg).]] |
| 229 | * BothSidesHaveAPoint: |
| 230 | ** Mako and Korra during the Water Tribe Civil War. Korra, a member of the Tribe, is trying to get the Republic involved in the said war on the side she supports, and engages in what ''actually'' amounts to sedition (conspiring with senior officers to flout the civilian government's policy of neutrality) to do so once her legal options are exhausted. Whereas Mako, a Republic citizen and officer in the police, cannot condone this and reveals the plot to the President, who then proceeds to decisively clip the wings of the conspiracy (though Korra herself is let off with a stern warning). The results: Korra is mad at Mako and feels he has betrayed her and her people, who are struggling for their lives against oppression, while Mako is mad at Korra for putting him in an impossible situation and essentially ''expecting'' him to betray ''his own'' country for her. While Korra comes off worse as far as their personal relationship goes, both still have good reasons to act as they do, as each of them is only being loyal to his or her own people. |
| 231 | ** As far as the feud between Lin & Suyin went, both had very valid criticisms towards the other. Lin for the fact Suyin had caused so much trouble that in her youth and caused Toph to retired, yet she never apologized for anything she did, even personal issues like accidentally scarring Lin. Suyin for the fact that she had made several attempts both past and present to bury the hatchet with Lin, but Lin never tried to do the same, also how Lin was openly hostile to Suyin's family as well who had nothing to do with her personal issues with Suyin. |
| 232 | ** Both Kuvira and Suyin both have good points in regards to their stances of Kuvira's "[[TheEmpire Earth Empire]]", but the problem is that they take their respective beliefs too far. Suyin believes that stepping in to re-unite the Earth Kingdom would effectively make her a conqueror and run the risk of her going DrunkOnTheDarkSide, but she uses this as an excuse to not send ''any'' aid to the villages and regions who are suffering severe food shortages and bandit problems, [[CreateYourOwnVillain which is exactly why Kuvira decided it step in and do something herself]]. Kuvira is correct in that, with the other nations having their own issues, the Air Nation spread too thin and Korra still recovering from the Red Lotus' attempt on her life, someone needed to step in to reunite the Earth Nation and Zaofu has the resources and technology to do it. She's also not wrong that Prince Wu is incompetent and would have been made a PuppetKing with the other nations sending him advisors to do all the work for him, meaning that it'd be at risk of being exploited in the interest of the other nations with little regard for them. However, Kuvira ended up DrunkOnTheDarkSide as Suyin feared she herself would be, and her methods are very authoritarian and severely limit the free will of her subjects, such as opening Re-Education camps and refusing the offer aid unless the region's leaders swear loyalty to her. |
| 233 | * BoundAndGagged: |
| 234 | ** Bolin and a few Triple Threat Triad members in Chapter 3. Then again with Korra after Tarrlok takes her hostage. Tarrlok forgot the "gagged" part, though, and nearly got his face burned off by a livid fire-breathing Korra for it. |
| 235 | ** And again in Book 3. Korra returns from the spirit world to find she and Asami have been captured by the Earth Queen's forces. Korra's straitjacketed, muzzled, and strapped to a gurney, Hannibal Lecter-style. Asami's cuffed to the wall. In the same episode Mako and Bolin are shown bound and gagged during the Red Lotus' meeting with the Earth Queen. |
| 236 | ** Baatar Jr. in Book 4 while Team Avatar kidnaps him. |
| 237 | * BoxingBattler: Pro benders' fighting styles tend to be closer to simpler, more direct moves like a boxer's. This is most apparent in the 1-v-1 sudden death matches at close range, that has handwork based heavily on boxing. And the difference in style really shows through when the quicker, less telegraphic style lets Mako and Bolin easily deal with the more traditional techniques of the Dai Li. |
| 238 | * BrandX: The Pro Bending tournament is sponsored in part by Flamey-O's Instant Noodles |
| 239 | * BrattyTeenageDaughter: {{Discussed| Trope}} in "A Leaf in the Wind" when Tenzin expresses frustration with Korra, now his live-in student. After his daughters witness a particularly bad bout where Korra insults Tenzin's teaching skills, Tenzin tries to avoid the inevitable. |
| 240 | -->'''Tenzin:''' You ''must'' promise me your teenage years won't be like this!\ |
| 241 | ''[{{beat}}]''\ |
| 242 | '''[[CuteBookworm Jinora]]:''' ''[peering over her book]'' [[DeadpanSnarker I will make no such promises]]. |
| 243 | * BreadEggsMilkSquick: Varrick listing all the supposedly-good things he had done to Team Avatar. |
| 244 | -->'''Varrick:''' Korra, who warned you about Unalaq? I did! Bolin, who got you into the movers? I did! Asami, who saved your company? I did! Mako, who got you thrown in jail? [[LampshadeHanging Oh yeah, I guess that was a bad thing...]] |
| 245 | * BreadEggsBreadedEggs: From "Rebirth": |
| 246 | -->'''Korra:''' Mako, I'm so glad you're here. |
| 247 | -->'''Mako:''' Of course, Korra...Avatar...Avatar Korra...[[TheComicallySerious Once I received your message, I proceeded to contact various locations within the Earth Kingdom, as ordered by you, Avatar...]] |
| 248 | * BreatherEpisode: After two pretty dark and brutal episodes, "The Spirit of Competition" is a fairly lighthearted story involving the pro-bending tournament and the show's LoveTriangle, and comes right before a slew of [[WhamEpisode Wham Chapters.]] |
| 249 | * BreakingSpeech: Korra impulsively calls out Amon to a fight, confident she could beat him since she’s the Avatar. It didn’t go the way she planned and Amon [[CurbstompBattle wipes the floor with her]]. He had Korra completely at his mercy, but [[CruelMercy lets her go]], saying it wasn’t the right time to take her out yet. Amon basically tells her the fight was just a demonstration and that he could take out Korra anytime he wished despite who she is. The encounter left her broken and scared. |
| 250 | * BreakingTheFellowship: |
| 251 | ** Of a sort. While Team Avatar seems to be going strong by Book Two, the Fire Ferrets are not. Korra and Mako have left the team for unknown reasons, leaving Bolin as the sole original member. Team Avatar went back and forth with this trope in Book 2, which Bolin lampshades. By Book 3, they're back in action. |
| 252 | ** Discussed during Book 4's "Reunion". After being apart for 3 years, Team Avatar has a lot more friction than before. |
| 253 | * BreakTheBadass: |
| 254 | ** Amon does this to Korra herself. She was already scared witless into becoming uncharacteristically hesitant and seemingly-stoic after witnessing Amon's [[{{Depower}} ability]]. Her first personal encounter with him, when his Equalists ambush and restrain her in seconds and he himself promises that he will destroy her utterly and personally once the time is right, leaves her crying into Tenzin's arms, admitting she had never felt so helpless and afraid. And considering the entire sequence was played as if she was about to be raped, we believe it. |
| 255 | ** This happens even more at the end of Book 3, when the Red Lotus [[spoiler:bends poison into Korra so that she could enter the Avatar State and they could kill her.]] It fails, yet Korra is not only physically drained, but also wrecked emotionally. This even carries over to the next Book. |
| 256 | * BreakTheHaughty: Korra was so used to being a natural prodigy at the physical side of being the Avatar that she assumed that connecting with the spiritual side was another game to win. This only changed when she admitted that the loss of her bending broke her heart. |
| 257 | * BrickJoke: |
| 258 | ** In the Book 2 finale episode "Light in the Dark," when the wall of Varrick's jail cell is destroyed by spirit vines, we can hear announcer Shiro Shinobi scream in response to Varrick's radio being knocked over. This is a small callback to "A New Spiritual Age," when Jinora asks Spirit Library curator, Wan Shi Tong, if he knows how radios work. Wan Shi Tong confidently answers that radios are little men in boxes who sing and play music. |
| 259 | ** Near the beginning of "Reunion", Prince Wu excuses himself to go to the bathroom, where he is captured shortly after entering. At the end of the episode, he announces that he had been "holding it" for the entirety of the episode. |
| 260 | * BridalCarry: After Naga arrives in Republic City with an injured Korra, Mako shoos everyone away and carries her like this to Oogi. All the while he tells her how worried he was and assuring her that she's safe now. The implications of this are not lost on Asami. |
| 261 | * BringMyBrownPants: In "And the Winner Is..." the CombatCommentator as he is attacked by Equalists. On live radio. |
| 262 | -->'''Shiro Shinobi:''' "I am currently wetting my pants." |
| 263 | * BrokenFaceplate: |
| 264 | ** After the Wolf-Bats' semifinal match, which the Wolf-Bats win the match in record time, the opposing team is carried away on stretchers, and one of them has a hole through his helmet. |
| 265 | ** In "The Aftermath", while fighting [[MiniMecha Mecha-Tanks]] made out of metal-bending-proof platinum, Chief Beifong resorts to the strategy of bending her metal bracer into a BladeBelowTheShoulder, [[ColossusClimb leaping up to the shoulders]] of one of the Mecha-Tanks, and driving the claw straight through the [[AttackItsWeakPoint more vulnerable]] cockpit canopy. The chi-blocker piloting it is shown desperately dodging. After a few cuts, we see the Mecha-Tank as immobile, Beifong having bashed though most of the canopy segments. |
| 266 | %% BroughtDownToNormal is a trope about TEMPORARY POWER LOSS. You're looking for its permanent (and already present) counterpart, DePower. |
| 267 | * BuffySpeak: |
| 268 | ** Very frequent whenever Varrick is in a room, uttered either by him or someone connected to him - from his own CatchPhrase ("Zhu Li, do the thing!") to the ShowWithinAShow he directs. ("He's the biggest, baddest, bendingest man I know!") |
| 269 | ** Even '''Tenzin''' gets in on the act. |
| 270 | --> "Is it too late for you to un-retire?" |
| 271 | ** Korra also has this line in "Skeletons In The Closet": "I hate this being patient stuff!" |
| 272 | * BuildingSwing: In "Welcome to Republic City", the Republic City police perform Building Swings to debark from their [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld patrol zeppelin,]] via metalbending {{retractable|weapon}} [[VariableLengthChain cables]] dispensed from [[GrapplingHookPistol wrist-mountings]] on their uniforms. |
| 273 | * BullyingADragon: Being the Avatar hasn't stopped people from being overtly confrontational with Korra. Tahno does this intentionally, because Korra attacking him would disqualify the Fire Ferrets from competing against his team. Tarrlok also mocks Korra as a "half-baked Avatar in training" since she hasn't mastered airbending, despite the fact that she has mastered the other three. Bloodbending did allow him to best her in a battle, but it was a trump card he only played in desperation. He got a solid ass-kicking when he tried to beat her in a straight fight. |
| 274 | * BurlyDetectiveSyndrome: Fanfiction refers to Korra as "the Avatar" almost exclusively, with occasional uses of "the Water Tribe girl." Asami, meanwhile, gets called "the CEO" or "the engineer." |
| 275 | * BurpingContest: In "The Spirit of Competition" Korra and Bolin get into one on their date, much to the horror of the other patrons in the restaurant. Korra seems to come out on top. |
| 276 | * BusCrash: In "A New Spiritual Age," it is revealed that Professor Zei got his wish to "spend an enternity" in Wan Shi Tong's Library. His dessicated corpse is surrounded by books and scrolls. |
| 277 | -->'''Jinora:''' Wow. I could just stay in here forever, reading.\ |
| 278 | '''Wan Shi Tong:''' The last human who said that is still here. |
| 279 | * ButNotTooGay: WordOfGod confirms that by the end of the series [[spoiler:Korra and Asami]] are a romantic couple, but we never see them kiss, even though every major heterosexual pairing in the series involves onscreen smooching. What makes it even more blatant is that the final scene between the two [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dcfec4c9c54760cf4e6796f0cc63e840.jpg clearly mirrors]] the final scene between Katara and Aang − except that the latter pair is shown kissing, while [[spoiler:Korra and Asami]] are merely holding hands. According to [[http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/105916338157/korrasami-is-canon-you-can-celebrate-it-embrace Bryan Konietzko]], this trope was used because the writers knew Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} wouldn't allow them to go any further in depicting the relationship. |
| 280 | * ButtMonkey: Bolin, Bumi, and Daw. Mako becomes this on an internal/[[LaserGuidedKarma karmic]] level in Book 3 and on a meta level in [[ClipShow "Remembrances."]] |
| 281 | [[/folder]] |
| 282 | |
| 283 | [[folder:C]] |
| 284 | * CallARabbitASmeerp: |
| 285 | ** Automobiles are called Satomobiles and Motorcycles are called Satocycles, after Hiroshi Sato, the [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Henry Ford-like]] industrialist who first marketed cars to the masses. Later episodes sometimes refer to them as just "cars", implying that it's something more similar to people calling all bandages "band-aids". |
| 286 | ** Varrick, the mogul who wants to market moving pictures, plans to call them "movers." |
| 287 | * CallBack: |
| 288 | ** In "[[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender The Avatar and the Fire Lord]]", Toph briefly wonders if friendships can transcend lifetimes. When she meets Korra in Season 4, Toph calls her "Twinkletoes", her affectionate nickname for Aang, and remarks how it's been a long time since they last met. |
| 289 | ** In Book 1, Bolin points out that the classic style of [[DishingOutDirt earthbending]] that Korra uses is too [[MightyGlacier slow]] and [[PoorPredictableRock telegraphs her movements]] compared to the modern [[LightningBruiser pro-bending]] style. Come Book 3 and the team faces off against the [[SecretPolice Dai Li]] whose style proves to be to exactly that against [[BashBrothers Mako and Bolin]], who manage to [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] them despite being out-numbered, in unfamiliar territory and facing off against men twice their ages. |
| 290 | ** In the Book 4 finale, Prince Wu enlists the help of several badgermoles by singing to them. This is a callback to the original series, when Sokka accidentally discovers that badgermoles are music lovers. This is also a callback to Prince Wu's plan of using "highly trained badgermoles" to stop Kuvira. |
| 291 | * CallingYourAttacks: |
| 292 | ** In "A Leaf in the Wind," Korra [[InvokedTrope tries]] with no success: |
| 293 | ---> '''Korra''': [[BlowYouAway Airbend]]! ''[performs form at newspaper]'' What is ''wrong'' with me? ''Airbend!'' |
| 294 | ** And then later to show she can: |
| 295 | ---> '''Korra''': Punch, punch, punch! |
| 296 | * TheCameo: |
| 297 | ** One of the Fire Sages in "Beginnings, Part 1" (not the elderly Shaman) is voiced by tennis player Serena Williams. Previously, Williams had a role in the original ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' playing a prison guard in the episode "The Day of Black Sun, Part 1: The Invasion". |
| 298 | * CantKillYouStillNeedYou: |
| 299 | ** In "The Voice in the Night". When Korra challenges Amon to a duel, he has his men restrain her and explains that while he ''could'' take her bending away, he will not because that would make her a martyr. Instead, he details a plan to take care of her last. In "Endgame," [[spoiler:he ditches that plan and de-bends her anyway, before the revolution has spread beyond Republic City, when she saves the last airbenders and attempts to expose him as a bloodbender.]] |
| 300 | ** In "Peacekeepers," Unalaq reveals that he lied in the previous episode when he told Korra he didn't need her to open the Northern Spirit Portal. He only said that to prevent Korra from going after her father. Ergo, he has to clarify to an overeager Eska, commanded to capture Korra, that he needs the Avatar alive. |
| 301 | ** Subverted by the Red Lotus that even Korra questions them about, [[spoiler: they intend to [[KillTheGod kill the Avatar Spirit]] and not just Korra, so instead of simply offing her like any other for Raava to simply incarnate in a new host, they intend to kill her in the [[SuperMode Avatar State]] to completely end the Avatar Cycle.]] |
| 302 | * CarFu: Asami crashes her car into an Equalist mecha in "Turning the Tides." |
| 303 | * CassandraTruth: |
| 304 | ** Initially the Equalist sympathisers have a very hard time believing that [[spoiler: Amon is a waterbender.]] |
| 305 | ** Everybody refuses to believe Mako's investigations into the bombing because they're convinced it was the work of "Northies" - going as far as to believe the testimony of ''convicted criminals'' over him. |
| 306 | * CastFromLifespan: Aang only lived to be 66 years old. WordOfGod explains that this is because of the 100 years Aang spent in the Avatar State while frozen in ice. |
| 307 | * CastOfSnowflakes: Even crowd shots are rendered with [[ArtEvolution impressive detail and diversity]]. |
| 308 | * CastingGag: In the Russian dub, Olga Shorokhova, the voice of Korra, has voiced the previous Avatar, Aang, in Avatar: The Last Airbender. |
| 309 | * CasualDangerDialogue: Chapter 6, "And the Winner Is" - The Pro Bending commentator Shiro Shinobi. He retains the same energetic and fast-paced reporting tone when the match concludes and the Equalists start emerging from the audience and using electric gloves to attack the event. He does not even change tone when they attack ''him'', adding that he is peeing his pants without the tiniest vocal quiver. |
| 310 | * CatapultNightmare: Korra gets one in "The Voice in the Night", as a result of being truly afraid for the first time in her life. |
| 311 | * {{Catfight}}: Subverted in "After All These Years" and "Korra Alone", Korra fights in an all-female underground Earthbending ring. The fight is not even remotely sexualised, in fact it's brutal and she walks away with actual, non-comedic injuries. |
| 312 | * {{Catchphrase}}: Varrick has the nearest thing to one, due to his ordering around of his assistant Zhu Li. |
| 313 | -->'''Varrick:''' Zhu Li! ''Do the thing!'' |
| 314 | ** So much so that, when Bolin [[spoiler:officiates Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding, he switches out ''"kiss the bride"'' from his final ceremonial line in favour of telling Varrick that he ''"may now do the thing"''.]] |
| 315 | * CharacterDeath: While NeverSayDie is usually in effect, Legend of Korra does contain a ''lot'' more explicit or implicit deaths than you would expect from a children's series, ranging from military bases being completely obliterated with no forewarning (and thus no evacuation of the ever-present "parachuting out of the descending plane" kind) to on-screen deaths with or without GoryDiscretionShot. |
| 316 | * CentralTheme: |
| 317 | ** Attaining balance, whether it be in an individual, a city, or the world. |
| 318 | ** Recognizing one's own strengths and weaknesses, and by doing so, adapting to your personal environment and situation. |
| 319 | ** Though it became more prominent in Books 3 and 4, the series asks the overall question "Does the world need the Avatar anymore, and what should her role be in a world mostly at peace?" |
| 320 | ** Balancing the influence of your past and family history with being yourself and forging your own path through life turns out to be a huge theme throughout all four seasons. In Book 1, Korra has to overcome the difficulties of being the new Avatar, all while constantly being compared to the last one, especially where airbending and the spiritual aspects of being the Avatar are concerned. In Book 2, Korra has to take this further by working to resolve the conflict within her family created by her mad uncle, while Asami ends up struggling with her father's now tainted legacy. At the same time, all three of Aang's children have to struggle with the difficulties being the children of the previous Avatar and the formerly last airbender caused with their lives. In Book 3, it's Lin's turn when she is forced to confront her previous conflict with her younger sister. Finally, in Book 4, Korra starts out traumatized by the events of the previous book and only finally manages to overcome them by confronting Zaheer, the person responsible for her trauma in the first place. Asami is able to reconnect with her father and Lin manages to overcome her previous conflict with her mother. |
| 321 | ** Extremism of any sort is bad. Compared to the pretty one-dimensional megalomaniacal Ozai, Korra’s villains are people who are/were well-intentioned but extreme in their methods. Amon is right that benders oppress {{Muggles}}, so is Unalaq about the world losing its spiritual angle, so is Zaheer about the Earth Queen being a tyrant, and the same for Kuvira about how the Earth Kingdom needs a steady hand. They all just go way too far. Toph tells Korra this pretty much word-for-word. Zaheer is probably the best example of it. In his quest for “freedom”, he kills the Earth Queen. However, the power vacuum (no pun intended) it created caused so much chaos that it allowed for another tyrant, Kuvira, to rise. |
| 322 | * CerebusSyndrome: |
| 323 | ** While the series is not lacking in the characteristic humor/wacky characters that ''TLA'' possessed, the overall tone is much more melancholic than the earlier episodes of ''TLA'' and is more on par with its darker episodes. |
| 324 | ** This trope is in full effect since Book 3, with the series taking bold moves that show things that are usually not reminiscent of a children's show. The biggest examples include: Zaheer sucking the air out of the Earth Queen being shown directly, [[spoiler:P'li]] having her head blown off, Korra's hallucinations after being affected by the poison, and her being depressed, wheelchair-bound, and with dark circles indicative of mercury poisoning after the finale. |
| 325 | * ChairReveal: In "The Sting" Mako rushes to Asami's office to tell her he knows who set them up and stole all her merchandise. The chair in front of her desk swivels to reveal Varrick, whom Mako thinks is behind it, smirking evilly, while Asami is overjoyed that he just "saved" Future Industries by buying a controlling interest in it. |
| 326 | * ChangingOfTheGuard: Korra and her compatriots take up the mission of their fore-bearers: to preserve peace and balance in the world. Toph officially retires after "Operation Beifong " |
| 327 | * ChekhovsGag: Meelo's fartillary is played as a joke a few times in season 1. Come season 4, his lack of control over them makes Korra not take him along on the stealth mission. |
| 328 | * ChekhovsGun: |
| 329 | ** At the end of the very first episode, a blueprint of a MiniMecha can be seen on the wall of the Equalist base. Six episodes later and they're wreaking havoc on the Metalbender Corps. |
| 330 | ** Asami grew up at her father's factory, not only learning to drive cars but other vehicles. Knowing how to work the forklifts allows her to drive the MiniMecha her dad built. |
| 331 | ** A recurring short term gun is when the 'camera' makes sure to get some flowing water or a pool in a shot, because a waterbender is going to be using it in a few seconds. |
| 332 | ** Wan's teapot returns in the Spirit World. |
| 333 | ** In "Operation: Beifong" Bolin and others notice all the metal from Zaofu's domes is gone. In the next episode we find out that [[spoiler:Kuvira has a built a giant mecha with it.]] |
| 334 | ** Happens in a very literal sense in the season finale. Kuvira has to [[spoiler:throw her HumongousMecha's devastating spirit gun into the Spirit Wilds after the arm it's attached to is compromised by Team Avatar. After the mech is completely destroyed, Kuvira finds it suspended by vines and tries to use it in a last-ditch attempt to kill Korra.]] |
| 335 | * ChekhovsGunman: |
| 336 | ** Gommu, the homeless guy from the first chapter who was ''really'' jazzed about that bush. Cut to the Book One finale and we find out why: the bush hides a secret passage to an underground city composed of homeless benders and non-benders who live happily side-by-side, where Korra & Co. hide during the Equalist occupation. |
| 337 | ** Iroh appears in the Spirit World in book 2 to teach Korra an important lesson about spirituality and the nature of light and dark. |
| 338 | ** Kuvira, who makes several small appearances as a random Zaofu solider throughout book 3 and later turns out to be Book 4's BigBad. |
| 339 | * ChekhovsNews: |
| 340 | ** In "A Leaf in the Wind", Korra hears of up-and-coming pro-bending team the Fire Ferrets, and their star player Mako, via a live radio broadcast. Combined with ChekhovsGunman in "A Leaf in the Wind," when Korra is reading the newspaper, and a picture of Tahno can be seen on the back of the paper. He shows up three episodes later as her rival. |
| 341 | ** In Book 3, Kuvira's picture is briefly seen in a newspaper Lin Beifong is reading. This is one of Kuvira's small but numerous appearances in Book 3, hinting at her importance in Book 4. |
| 342 | * ChekhovsSkill: |
| 343 | ** In "A Leaf in the Wind", the spiral dodging movements and footwork Jinora demonstrates and Korra struggles to master later help Korra win her first pro-bending match. |
| 344 | ** At the racetrack in "The Aftermath" Asami mentioned she had taken self defense classes,which later prove useful in subduing bad guys of every sort. |
| 345 | ** During Wan's training, Raava mentions that even if she or Vaatu were physically destroyed, they'd simply be reborn from within the other. [[spoiler:After the fused Unalaq and Vaatu, destroy Raava, Korra rips Raava out from Vaatu and re-fuses with her.]] |
| 346 | ** During metalbending training in "The Terror Within", Bolin uses a tiny rock to land a pinpoint headshot on his opponent. He later uses this skill to nail P'Li in the head and momentarily disable her combustion bending, allowing Su and Lin to rescue Korra. |
| 347 | ** When Korra teaches Opal airbending, the two circle around each other while manipulating a ring of wind. When the entire new Air Nation perform the same motion, it creates a tornado strong enough [[spoiler:to pull Zaheer back to earth.]] |
| 348 | * ChildProdigy |
| 349 | ** Korra had started bending both earth and fire completely on her own by age four. Most avatars don't even know they have the ability to bend more than one element until they're told when they're sixteen. She picks up metalbending after only a couple minutes of instruction. She's mastered all four elements and energybending by the time she's nineteen. |
| 350 | ** Jinora [[spoiler:becomes the youngest master airbender (breaking Aang's record) at age eleven after she ''invents astral projection'']]. She's also more in touch with the spirits than even Aang ever dreamed of being. |
| 351 | * CityOfAdventure: Republic City, the show's main setting. |
| 352 | * CivilWar |
| 353 | ** Season 1: The United Republic has one between the Council-led government forces and Amon's Equalists, who attract eormous popular support. |
| 354 | ** Season 2: The Water Tribe ends up fighting one, with Varrick's Southern Water Tribe rebels and Korra's uncle on opposite sides. It turns out said civil war is merely a pretext for the true threat--Vaatu's return for Harmonic Convergence. |
| 355 | ** Season 3: The Earth Kingdom falls into one after the Earth Queen's death, with citizens fighting amongst themselves and remnants of the Earth Queen's government. |
| 356 | * ClearMyName: Korra hopes to clear her parents's names after they have been framed for an assassination attempt against Unalaq. |
| 357 | * ClipShow: Nickelodeon [[http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/103173899927/a-few-preemptive-words-about-episode-408 slashed the show's budget for its final season]], so the production team had to choose between firing animators or slapping together a clip show, hence, episode 8 of Book 4, "Remembrances". |
| 358 | * CloseCallHaircut: In "When Extremes Meet", Tarrlok's opening attack on Korra slices off a few hairs from her ponytail when she dodges it. |
| 359 | * ClosetKey: [[spoiler: Korra and Asami]] are the bisexual version of this for each other. |
| 360 | * ClothingCombat: In "The Revelation", Korra borrows her friend Mako's ScarfOfAsskicking to [[WigDressAccent disguise]] herself and [[TheInfiltration infiltrate]] an [[AntiMagicalFaction Equalist]] rally, and ends up using the scarf to throw a [[GiantMook huge bouncer]] into a steam vent, knocking him out. |
| 361 | * CluelessAesop: Wan physically separated humans and spirits because the groups couldn't coexist. Then expresses how the humans had to learn to live with each other. Not only is this contradictory but we know that the groups will eventually divide themselves into the four nations. When one nation tries to subvert this order the world will be thrown into a century long war. |
| 362 | * ColorCodedElements: |
| 363 | ** Unlike the original series, where with few exceptions anyone's ElementalNation citizenship or ElementalPowers could be determined at a glance, the people of Republic City either use a [[AvertedTrope wide range]] of colors in their fashion, or {{Downplay|ed Trope}} their traditional colors, as with multi-ethnic bender crime gangs the [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Triple Threat Triads]]. People that live in their countries of origin, and people who are deeply involved in their culture (like Tenzin and his followers, the Air Acolytes) still [[PlayedStraight play this straight]]. |
| 364 | ** Mako and Bolin typically wear dark shades of gray in the fashion of Republic City, but they always have colored trim appropriate for their bending elements (red for Mako, green for Bolin). Mako's sentimental scarf is conveniently red. |
| 365 | ** Pro-bending teams identify which element each team member bends by their color-coded belts and helmets. |
| 366 | ** Lampshaded by Varrick, who imported a red carpet from the Fire Nation because "they make the ''best'' red things!" |
| 367 | ** And in Book 2: Spirits, we have Dark Spirits who glow purple and normal Spirits who glow gold when "Spirit Bended". |
| 368 | ** Eye-color remains an indicator of bending-type (as in the last series), with brown/red for fire (Mako, P'li), green for earth (Bolin, the Beifong family), blue for water (Korra, Kya), and gray for air (Tenzin, Ikki, Meelo), even within mixed families. There are some exceptions (Jinora has brown eyes, the people who received airbending powers after the harmonic convergence have varied eye-colors) |
| 369 | * CombatByChampion: In "The Battle of Zaofu," Kuvira challenges Korra to a one-on-one duel to determine the fate of Zaofu, instead of just sending her army in. Jinora and Opal violate the terms of the duel when Kuvira moves in for the kill, giving Kuvira a pretext to launch an attack with her army. |
| 370 | * CombatCommentator: Introduced in "A Leaf in the Wind," Shiro Shinobi, the announcer at pro-bending matches, narrates the action for spectators and radio listeners. He also narrates the PreviouslyOn segments, complete with footage edited to look grainy and sepia-toned. |
| 371 | ** Shinobi's Combat Commenting is PlayedForLaughs and [[PlayedforDrama drama]] in "And the Winner Is," where he [[CasualDangerDialogue continues commentating in the same manner he always does]] ''while an Equalist mook is about to electrocute him.'' |
| 372 | ---> '''Shinobi''': [[BringMyBrownPants I am currently wetting my pants.]] |
| 373 | ** He gets another moment in Book Two's "Night of a Thousand Stars", where, despite being in the ''audience'' at the time, he starts commenting on the fight between Varrick's Water Tribe mooks and Bolin. Granted, the fight ''was'' taking place in the pro-bending ring... |
| 374 | * CombatTentacles: The Metalbender Cops' weapons of choice are wrist-mounted retractable cables that can be manipulated through bending. They are used to tie up criminals and move around the city. |
| 375 | ** [[GodOfEvil Vaatu]] uses these in his battles with Wan and Korra. [[spoiler:After Unalaq fuses with Vaatu to become the Dark Avatar, he uses these in his attack on Republic City and his final battle with Korra.]] |
| 376 | ** Ming-Hua's water arms are essentially these, but when there's enough water around, she can form multiple tendrils. |
| 377 | * ComfortFood: In "The Spirit of Competition," Bolin takes Korra to a Southern Water Tribe restaurant for the food that she grew up with. Later, when he catches Korra and Mako kissing, [[DrunkOnMilk he spends the entire night gorging on their noodles]]. |
| 378 | * ConflictBall: Mako plays basketball with this in the first two seasons. Asami calls him out on cheating on her with Korra and to just admit he has feelings for the latter, which would quickly and cleanly end the former's relationship, but he's too indecisive just bite the bullet. He still continues to fawn over Korra, waiting until the last minute before the group splits to ''finally'' apologize and break up. Then, in Book 2 when an amnesiac Korra doesn't remember their break-up while he's be OnTheRebound with Asami ''and'' had previously lectured Bolin on quickly ending his own troubled relationship, he irresponsibly lies to Korra, unceremoniously ending his relationship with [[DeathGlare Asami]], gets the stink-eye from everyone else in the room and continues his relationship with Korra under false pretenses while walking on eggshells until the battle's over. He ''finally'' confesses only for Korra to have already learned the truth, call him out on it and end the relationship tearfully anyway. Had Mako simply been honest in either situation, it would gave saved everyone, ''especially'' himself, a lot less frustration and heartbreak. |
| 379 | * ConflictKiller: The first three episodes, and the pre-premiere commercials which contained footage from only the first two episodes, emphasized the criminal element of Republic City as the largest issue facing society and Korra's primary enemy. However, in "The Revelation" the Equalists, who had received only infrequent mentions and a single appearance of their leader, Amon, shifted the focus of the story to the bender/non-bender conflict after interrupting a planned gang war and eliminating the Triple Threat Triads in a single night. |
| 380 | * ContinuityNod: |
| 381 | ** In "The Revelation", Korra recalls the anti-bending protester from "Welcome to Republic City" who gave her a hard time, and tracks him down so she and Mako can pump him for information on the chi-blockers. |
| 382 | ** When Korra explains to Tenzin that Amon can take away a bender's bending permanently, Tenzin mentions that previously only the Avatar had that power: This power was developed and used in the series finale of the original show. |
| 383 | ** In "The Aftermath," Cabbage Corp. owner Lau Gan-Lan is arrested when Hiroshi Sato frames and then accuses him of being an Equalist. As he is being dragged away, he yells "Not my Cabbage Corp!" a nod to the Cabbage Merchant RunningGag in the original series. |
| 384 | ** In "Darkness Falls", when Tenzin and his siblings wander through the Fog of Lost Souls, they meet Admiral Zhao from the original series. |
| 385 | ** In the flashbacks in "Out of the Past" we see Sokka speaking of both Combustion Man, and beating him with his boomerang, and Toph developing metalbending. The same chapter shows that even at age 40, Toph still calls Aang Twinkle Toes. Combustion Man is also mentioned by Zuko in season 3 when he goes to check on the prison of P'li who has similar powers. |
| 386 | ** During Wan's death in "Beginnings: Part 2," we see a burning battlefield with several Earthbender discs sticking up out of the ground. A similar battlefield can be seen along a road in "Zuko Alone." |
| 387 | ** In "The Stakeout" Zaheer eliminates Aiwei by throwing his spirit into the Fog of Lost Souls, first featured in Book 2. |
| 388 | ** The early fourth season episode "Korra Alone" is not only named for the Last Airbender episode "Zuko Alone", but also features a similar premise, with Korra standing in for Zuko. |
| 389 | ** Mako and Bolin's grandmother faints when she meets Prince Wu, being a huge monarchist, even when the Earth Queen ruled. |
| 390 | * ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Aang was a peacekeeper in a time of war. Korra is a warrior in a time of peace. Their characters arcs directly contrast each other. ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' is about a kid learning to be the Avatar. ''The Legend of Korra'' is about the Avatar learning to be a person. Finally, Aang never wanted to be the Avatar, while Korra revels in it. |
| 391 | * ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: In "The Revelation" as bola-wielding chi-blockers advance toward a sprawled Mako and Korra, Naga frees herself. She and Pabu lunge bellowing (and squeaking) at them, at which they throw their [[SmokeOut smoke screen]] and flee. |
| 392 | * CouldHaveBeenMessy: The spikes and blades made by water and metal benders never actually pierce or cut anybody, the big rocks thrown around by earthbenders never squish a single person, nobody gets serious burns from fire or lava bending. And exactly one person is injured by combustion bendings, and even then GoryDiscretionShot is such that we don't even hear the explosion. |
| 393 | * ConspicuousGloves: |
| 394 | ** Fingerless gloves come standard on otherwise heavily padded pro-bending uniforms, as well as the similar armor Korra wears for her firebending test in "Welcome to Republic City." |
| 395 | ** Mako wears his own set in his daily clothes. |
| 396 | * ConvectionSchmonvection: As it was in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', this series plays this trope like a drum. Firebenders casually throw around fire and lightning with little to no protection and no one ever gets so much as singed. Particularly gratuitous in Book 3. Ming-Hua's prison was in the heart of an active volcano, suspended at most a few hundred feet above the lava, but no one was any the worse for wear in that place. Additionally, Ghazan's (and subsequently Bolin's) lavabending is hot enough to instantly melt metal, but no one is ever even remotely fazed by being close to it. |
| 397 | * CoolAirship: The fully equipped Future Industries airship Asami provides Team Avatar in Book 3. It's larger and more luxurious than any other airship seen so far in the series. |
| 398 | * CoolBigSis: Korra is this, for all intents and purposes, to Tenzin’s kids whom she adores as much as they adore her. |
| 399 | * CoolBike: The Equalists' motorcycles and Asami's moped. |
| 400 | * CoolBoat: Varrick has a whole fleet of cool ships and speedboats. He even has the first Battleship, named the ''Zhu-Li''. |
| 401 | * CoolCar: Future Industries' [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120421100334/avatar/images/1/11/Race_car.png race car]] is pretty cool, as is the gangsters' hot rod and [[http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m33umcoJ6Y1rufegho3_1280.jpg the roadster]] Tarrlok gives Korra. Even [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3b9p4fH6P1rs9cj9o4_1280.jpg the regular Satomobile sedan]] is pretty cool. Then there's Asami's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ctFro88eK0 alternative transport]] (a phaeton-type car) when Naga objects to carrying four people at once in "When Extremes Meet". |
| 402 | --> '''Mako:''' I like the new Team Avatar's style. |
| 403 | * {{Cosplay}}: In the final match between The Wolf Bats and the Fire Ferrets, cosplayers of the respective teams can be seen in the stands. |
| 404 | * TheCorruption: In "A New Spiritual Age" it is revealed that spirits are affected by human emotion, and the darkness in human hearts can infect and distort the Spirit World and turn spirits into Dark Spirits, while positive emotions have positive effects. This is far more pronounced with the Avatar, since the Avatar represents Light. |
| 405 | * CrapsackWorld: Prior to the start of the series, almost every leader in the world is either evil and/or a jerk. Tarrlok attempted to usurp leadership of Republic City, Unalaq got his brother banished and was working for Vaatu to plunge the world in eternal darkness, and the Earth Queen is an animal hating tyrant who has almost the entire Earth Kingdom as her domain and stole her people's freedom. It seems the only nation with a good ruler is ironically, the Fire Nation under Zuko's daughter, and the leader of the Southern Water Tribe is decent enough (even if he's a bit overprotective of his daughter). |
| 406 | * CrashIntoHello[=/=]MeetCute: In "The Voice in the Night" Asami meets Mako by nearly running him over with her moped. |
| 407 | * CrazyPrepared: The Satoplanes, despite being the first (and only) heavier than air flying machines in the world, have rear-firing bolas just in case they get into a dogfight. |
| 408 | ** Varrick built the prison with a special cell for himself because he had a feeling he'd end up there one day. He was right. On that note, Varrick, aside from having a hollow Platypus-Bear in his office aboard his boat (in case someone comes looking for him), prepares for crazy outcomes, like pet radio becoming a big thing. |
| 409 | ** Amon wears a mask to hide his identity and underneath that mask he wears makeup to hide his identity more. |
| 410 | ** [[HumongousMecha The Colossus]] [[spoiler:has a window-cleaning system, is made of unbendable platinum shell and has an override in the event someone actually breaks in. Unfortunately for it/fortunately for the heroes, its innards are ordinary bendable metal.]] |
| 411 | * CreepyTwins: In season 2, Desna and Eska, the children of Chief Unalaq. |
| 412 | * CripplingOverspecialization: The Equalist's mecha fighters were especially developed to counter Republic City's metalbending police, which they did very well...but a smart waterbender, like, oh, Korra, can get at the inner workings, and Bolin and Mako figure out effective fire and earthbending tricks to use against them too. |
| 413 | ** Ironically the mecha fighters are so effective because of the Metalbending Police's own Crippling Overspecialization with metal tethers. This makes them useless against anything they cannot physically restrain, completely forgetting that they have the crushing force of Earthbending at their disposal. Thankfully Metalbenders in the third and fourth season show a much more tactful mix of Metal and Earthbending. |
| 414 | ** The chi-blockers, themselves are this as they've trained to deal with the healthy population of fire, water and earthbenders, but are overwhelmed against either an element that's too rare to prep for ([[BlowYouAway Air]]) or a fellow non-bender (Asami,) harking back to Ty Lee's strengths and weaknesses. |
| 415 | * CrossPoppingVeins: In Chapter 7, when Bolin and Mako are swimming in Asami's pool, Bolin orders the Sato valet to dry him off, only for Bolin to immediately hop back in the pool. The valet understandably pops these. |
| 416 | * CrossReferencedTitles: |
| 417 | ** "The Earth Queen" to the previous series episode "The Earth King". Both titles characters are sharp contrasts to each others. |
| 418 | ** "Korra Alone" to "Zuko Alone". |
| 419 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: Book 3 really ramps up the creativity for character deaths. [[spoiler: The Earth Queen's demise is [[SupernaturalSuffocation breathtaking]], P'li's is [[YourHeadAsplode mind-blowing]], Ming-Hua's is truly [[HighVoltageDeath shocking]], and Ghazan's really [[LoadBearingBoss brings the house down]].]] |
| 420 | * CruellaToAnimals: Due to her allergies, the Earth Queen ''really'' hates animals ...except when she's [[ExoticEntree eating them]]. Rumor has it that she even ate her father's bear Bosco. |
| 421 | * CrushBlush: Jinora gets a bunch of these during season 3 towards [[TheArtfulDodger former Artful Dodger]] [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Kai]], especially when being praised or thanked by him. Korra was also no stranger to these during season 1, towards [[spoiler:future ex-boyfriend Mako]]. |
| 422 | * CrystalSpiresAndTogas: The city of Zaofu in season 3 is an Asiatic version of the trope. The citizens wear robes, but the spires are made out of steel rather than crystal, as the city was founded by Metalbenders. It seems to be a utopia that supports science, art and creativity in all forms and doesn't sacrifice natural beauty for its progress. |
| 423 | * CultureChopSuey: |
| 424 | ** The established FarEast blending now adds elements of TheRoaringTwenties and TheGreatDepression to its cultural milieu, with Republic City itself as a blend of UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}}, UsefulNotes/HongKong, [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity Manhattan]], UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco. |
| 425 | ** The soundtrack, as per the Track Team, is described as "1920s UsefulNotes/NewOrleans {{jazz}} [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace but if it were invented in China"]]. |
| 426 | * CulturePolice: Cultural ''[[MugglePower revolutionaries]]'' the [[AntiMagicalFaction Equalists]] want to eradicate the SupernaturalMartialArts of [[ElementalPowers Bending]] and extend this to opposing its most popular culture, the FictionalSport of pro-bending, on the grounds that it leads to idolizing benders. |
| 427 | * CurbStompBattle: |
| 428 | ** In "Welcome to Republic City," Korra's battle with the three Triple Threat Triad members is laughably one-sided, despite her numerical disadvantage. |
| 429 | ** In "The Revelation," Amon has absolutely no trouble dodging the captured bending criminals' attacks and closing the distance so that he can take away their bending. It's later implied that Amon was able to best so many powerful benders because he was [[spoiler:using his bloodbending to slow them down and make their attacks miss.]] |
| 430 | ** In "The Revelation," Amon's lieutenant wipes the floor with Bolin and Mako, brutally so. |
| 431 | ** In "The Voice in the Night", Korra is ambushed, restrained and [[BreakingSpeech broken]] by Amon in no time flat. |
| 432 | ** The Wolf-Bats score a first-round victory in "The Spirit of Competition", which was brutal enough to put the other team on stretchers. The very next chapter, the Wolf-Bats fall to a CurbStompBattle against the Equalists. |
| 433 | ** When Amon's Lieutenant attacks Asami after she has made clear what side she was on, she proceeds to knock his first rod out of his hand, and then uses his other rod to knock ''him'' out. |
| 434 | ** In "Out of the Past", Tarrlok is on the receiving end of this from Amon, who resists Tarrlok's bloodbending and de-bends him. |
| 435 | ** Amon's battle with [[spoiler:his Lieutenant]] in "Endgame." [[spoiler:The Lieutenant makes a dramatic speech and attacks Amon, who calmly bloodbends him into a wall]] before he even gets close enough to actually hit him. |
| 436 | ** At the start of Book 2, the Fire Ferrets are defeated faster than any other pro-bending team in history. |
| 437 | ** In Book 3, most of Zaheer's battles go down this route, as most guards have had little to no experience in battling airbenders. |
| 438 | ** Zaheer becomes the recipient of one in his battle with Tenzin, proving that natural talent is unmatched against natural talent and training. However, the other Red Lotus members get the drop on Tenzin, turning the battle to their favor. |
| 439 | ** [[MakingASplash Kya vs. Ming-Hua]] as the latter reveals she was [[JustToyingWithThem Just Toying With Her]] and collects all the water they'd been throwing around to send Kya almost falling to her doom. |
| 440 | ** Korra ''begins'' Book 4 on the receiving end FightClubbing to the extent she's left with bruises and even a ''black eye.'' |
| 441 | ** Later in Book 4, Kuvira and Korra's first battle ends with Korra being beaten and humiliated, with Korra unable to land a single hit before she enters the Avatar State. Even then, her PTSD is triggered and she temporarily loses focus, thereby handing the battle to Kuvira. |
| 442 | * CurbstompCushion: The fight between Tonraq and Unalaq plays out like one, as an extension of [[spoiler: the Southern Tribe's raid on Northern Occupation.]] Without support from Republic City, it was ultimately a losing battle, but Tonraq continues pushing through his brother's attacks, nearly managing to land a punch square to his face before being subdued. |
| 443 | ** In Book 4, [[spoiler: Varrick]] was hoping to take out ''all'' of Kuvira's forces by EMP, but it "only" takes out a platoon of [[PoweredArmor mecha suits]] as [[spoiler: the Colossus is spirit vine-powered]] instead. |
| 444 | * CycleOfRevenge: Aang debended Yakone, causing him to plot revenge by raising his children as {{Tykebomb}}s. This, in turn, caused [[spoiler:Amon to lash out at benders in general]], and Tarrlok to become a corrupt councilman to succeed were his father failed. Tarrlok realizes this in the end and finally ends the cycle, and Yakone's legacy, by [[spoiler:[[RedemptionEqualsDeath killing himself and Amon]].]] |
| 445 | ** Also applies to Asami's family: Asami's mother was killed by the Agni Kai Triad, causing her father, Hiroshi Sato, [[spoiler: to bankroll the Equalists and fulfill his revenge against all benders]]. Later on, Asami sees what a monster her father had become, which led her to retaliate and attempt to put her father down once and for all. [[spoiler:They, too, eventually break the cycle.]] |
| 446 | [[/folder]] |
| 447 | |
| 448 | [[folder:D]] |
| 449 | * DamnYouMuscleMemory: In "A Leaf in the Wind", Korra accidentally earthbends when she becomes frustrated during her first pro-bending match, despite assuring Bolin just prior that she would only waterbend to stay within the rules. |
| 450 | * DarkerAndEdgier: ''Korra'' is far darker than [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender the original]], which already had plenty of dark moments for a kids' show. According to the creators, they were surprised they could even get away with some parts of the show: |
| 451 | ** Book 1 has Amon's whole revolution, which, among other things, has benders lined up execution style as Amon methodically takes their bending away. The book ends with the ''murder-suicide'' of [[spoiler:Amon and Tarrlok, earlier revealed to be brothers.]] |
| 452 | ** Book 2 has Tenzin and his siblings dealing with issues from Aang's ParentalFavoritism. |
| 453 | ** Book 3 has the Red Lotus. They earn their cred with interest when Zaheer uses airbending to suffocate the Earth Queen... ''onscreen''. [[spoiler:Then, the heroes stop following ThouShallNotKill in gruesome fashion, killing two of the four main villains personally and indirectly causing the death of one more.]] |
| 454 | ** Book 4 depicts Korra struggling to recover from her physical and emotional trauma due to the events of Book 3, whilst events elsewhere culminate into an all out war between the United Republic and Kuvira's nascent Earth Empire. |
| 455 | * DarkestHour: |
| 456 | ** Book 1, when Amon and his Equalists have taken over Republic City, and benders are having their bending taken away. Korra and her friends have to hide from the invasion, and the help they receive from General Iroh II goes haywire. |
| 457 | ** Book 2 is even more heartwrenching. [[spoiler:Unalaq has managed to fuse with the ultimate dark spirit Vaatu, becoming a Dark Avatar, and he and Korra duke it out. But then...Vaatu pulls Raava out of Korra and brutally kills her, shattering Korra's connection with her past lives forever. As if that wasn't enough, Unalaq then [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever grows to enormous size]] and starts wreaking havoc on Republic City]]. |
| 458 | ** Book 3 tops both 1 and 2 when Korra [[spoiler:becomes incapacitated and wheelchair-bound after a poison (possibly mercury) nearly kills her. She is left traumatized physically and emotionally by the effects of the poison and feels she is not needed anymore. Now her job of keeping balance is now in the hands of the Air Nation and her other teammates while she's in convalescence. Unfortunately, even they were not having the best of luck with Korra gone. The Airbenders were spread too thin to make any real progress, and Team Avatar dissolved because Korra was gone longer than they expected. As a result, things became more desperate that the world turned to Kuvira to bring the Earth Kingdom out of its tragedy]]. |
| 459 | ** Book 4 has [[spoiler:Kuvira invading Republic City, forcing Raiko into a surrender and blowing up the warehouse where Korra and the others are hiding.]] |
| 460 | * DartboardOfHate: |
| 461 | ** In "A Leaf in the Wind", when Korra is trying to airbend, we zoom out to see that her target is actually a picture of Chief Beifong in the newspaper, which she then incinerates in frustration. |
| 462 | ** At the beginning of "And The Winner Is..." the Fire Ferrets are using photos of Tahno, the captain of the Wolf-Bats, as target practice. |
| 463 | * DatingDoSiDo: Asami dates Mako for most of season one. Korra goes on one date with Bolin while being into Mako. Mako breaks up with Asami for Korra at the end of book one. Korra and Mako date, then break up. Asami and Mako have another brief fling for about fifteen minutes. Korra gets amnesia and forgets about breaking up with Mako, who takes way too long to tell her, until they break up again. [[spoiler:The series ends with Korra and Asami holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes in the Spirit Portal while slow, nostalgic music plays, having decided to go on vacation there with just the two of them, signaling their RelationshipUpgrade.]] |
| 464 | * DawnOfAnEra: |
| 465 | ** At the conclusion of Book 2, [[spoiler:Korra reforms the pact with Raava to create an all new Avatar cycle.]] |
| 466 | ** Also at the conclusion of Book 2, [[spoiler:the merging of the spirit world with the mundane world means humans can now engage with the spirits directly, anywhere, absolving the Avatar of the responsibility to be the bridge between both worlds.]] |
| 467 | ** As of Book 3, [[spoiler:the race of Airbenders has spontaneously repopulated from different peoples across the world and has come together to form a new band of Air Nomads.]] |
| 468 | * DeagedInDeath: Zig-Zagged. Aang's spirit appears to Korra as a grown man, likely in his mid to late 30s or early 40s. However, later in the series, when Aang's spirit appears to Tenzin, he is much older, looking as though he is in his late middle ages, right around the age he would have been when he died. |
| 469 | * DeadGuyJunior: |
| 470 | ** Two of Aang and Katara's three children: [[MissingMom Kya]] and [[TricksterMentor Bumi]]. |
| 471 | ** Mako is a meta example: He is named after {{Creator/Mako}}, Iroh's voice actor who died during production of the original series. |
| 472 | ** At the end of "Turning the Tides", the General of the United Forces is revealed to be General Iroh, voiced by Creator/DanteBasco. |
| 473 | * DeadlineNews: Even as the pro-bending arena is being attacked, and an enemy comes storming into the announcer's room, Shiro Shinobi continues commentating his attack for all the listeners at home. |
| 474 | * DeathByDespair: Implied with Noatak and Tarrlok's parents. |
| 475 | * DeathByOriginStory: |
| 476 | ** In "The Revelation" we learn that Bolin and Mako's parents were killed when Mako was eight by a firebender who was mugging them. Later in the same chapter, Amon claims that his family was killed, and his face scarred, by a firebender who extorted money from his non-bender family. [[spoiler:Amon was in fact [[SubvertedTrope making up the entire story]] as part of his anti-bender propaganda. He was the son of former Republic City crime-lord Yakone.]] |
| 477 | ** In "Aftermath," we learn that Asami's mother was killed by a firebending triad member. This fact was used by Hiroshi Sato to try and tempt Asami to [[ParentalBetrayal join the Equalists with him]]. |
| 478 | * DeathGlare: |
| 479 | ** In "The Voice in the Night", Pema gives Tenzin quite a glare after he reluctantly allows Tarrlok to join them for dinner. He only acquiesces because according to Air Nomad philosophy, you cannot turn away a hungry guest. Ikki then trumps her mother when she ''really'' glares at Tarrlok after declaring him "weird;" her glare continues for ''twenty seconds'', [[FunnyBackgroundEvent even after the camera pans away from her]] to cover his conversation with Korra. |
| 480 | ** In "Endgame", Bolin is on the receiving end of four glares after trying to reassure Korra by telling her that at least she is still able to airbend after losing the other three. He wisely shuts up immediately. |
| 481 | ** In "Night of a Thousand Stars," Asami gives one to Mako for ditching her ''again'' while simultaneously lying to an amnesiac Korra about still being together. |
| 482 | ** In "Beyond the Wilds," Prince Wu receives one of these from Firelord Izumi after spouting off a few idiotic plans to stop Kuvira. |
| 483 | * DeathRay: Varrick makes one on accident in Season 4 when experimenting on some spirit vines. He's freaked out [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness to the point of not caring how much money he could make off it]] and tries to shut the program down, but Kuvira threatens to kill him if he stops working. |
| 484 | * DeathWorld: The world before the Avatar was infested by spirits hostile to humans, who were forced to take shelter on top of lion turtles for protection. Being banished into the Spirit Wilds is the equivalent to a death sentence. |
| 485 | * DeconstructorFleet: Repeatedly deconstructs the original series, especially with its morally ambiguous villains and scenarios versus the Fire Nation. Unfortunately, bringing balance to the world is not as simple this time around as defeating the EvilOverlord who wants to TakeOverTheWorld (not that ''that'' was ever easy either). Basically, it's a deconstruction of any action show in general. |
| 486 | * DecadeDissonance: Very apparent with Republic City having all the technological marvels developed over the course of 70 years between the series, while many other locations look not so much different than at Aang's time (except more dilapidated). |
| 487 | * DecapitatedArmy: |
| 488 | ** After their leadership is beaten and [[spoiler:Amon is exposed as a bloodbender]], the Equalists lose their public support and are nowhere to be seen by the second season. WordOfGod is that there is a [[TheRemnant holdout]], but they aren't a significant threat and won't appear in the show. |
| 489 | ** After Unalaq and Vaatu are beaten, the Dark Spirits vanish and the Northern Water Tribe soldiers retreat. |
| 490 | * DentedIron: Katara, Toph and Zuko are the only known members of the original Team Avatar that are still active in the world. Seventy years of action and old age has evidently caught up to them, as Katara chooses to [[RefusalOfTheSecondCall sit out of the fighting in the Water Tribe Civil War]], Toph mentions that her back is killing her after participating in a fight, and Zuko is taken out in the fight with the Red Lotus by one solid hit. |
| 491 | * DePower: |
| 492 | ** Most of the people that Amon gets his hands on end up losing their Bending. This list includes almost all known Triple Threat Triad members, the metalbending Police, Tahno, Tarrlok, Lin, and Korra herself. All except the Triad members are eventually restored. |
| 493 | ** In "Out of the Past", Aang does this to Yakone, who is too dangerous to imprison due to his [[PeoplePuppets bloodbending]]. |
| 494 | * DespairEventHorizon: When Tarrlok realizes [[spoiler:that Amon is his brother, and that they have both become tools of their father's vengeance despite their best efforts, he abandons any hope to ruling Republic City and no longer even cares that he has had his bending removed. When Amon invites him to run away together, [[DrivenToSUicide he instead kills them both]].]] |
| 495 | ** Korra faces this herself after [[spoiler: Unalaq and Vaatu "kill" Raava, breaking the avatar cycle and destroying Korra's connection to her past lives.]] |
| 496 | *** And again in season 3, when [[spoiler: she is left in a wheelchair after Zaheer's poison ravages her body. While everybody around her celebrates Jinora becoming an airbending master, Korra can only shed a single tear...]] |
| 497 | * DestroyerDeity: Has Vaatu. A Dark spirit representing chaos, and destruction. Before the age of the Avatar there was a cycle where every 10,000 years he and his Light counterpart Rava would fight for dominance. If Vatu ever won, there would be 10,000 years of darkness, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and all life on the planet would eventually die completely]]. He was [[SealedEvilInACan sealed away]] by the first Avatar because of this. |
| 498 | * DestructiveSavior: |
| 499 | ** In "Welcome to Republic City" Korra ends up destroying more property than the gang members she caught when she first arrived in Republic City, which is quickly pointed out by the Metalbending Police when they try to arrest her. Chief Beifong is adamant that, Avatar or not, acts of vigilante destruction will not be tolerated. |
| 500 | ** The series finale. [[spoiler: [[GodzillaThreshold Since it was going to get reduced to rubble anyway]], Team Avatar destroys most of Republic City in the fight against Kuvira's GiantMecha.]] At one point they bend whole buildings onto it. |
| 501 | %% |
| 502 | %% Do NOT add natter, complaining, justifying edits, or anything other than a simple representation of the facts as provided by the show to DeusExMachina. |
| 503 | %% |
| 504 | * DeusExMachina: |
| 505 | ** In the Book 1 finale [[spoiler:Amon is defeated, at the cost of Korra losing her bending and she is stuck in the worst crisis imaginable; the Avatar is no more. With Amon having blocked her connections to the three bendings (other than her newly-unlocked airbending), the Avatar is, for the first time in ten thousand years, non-existent. When Korra travels and sits by an ice cliff to reflect and cry over her loss of identity, she is visited by the spirit of Avatar Aang. One flash of Aang's energybending later, and not only does Korra have all three bendings back, but she also gives us a taste of her [[SuperMode Avatar State.]] ]] |
| 506 | ** Book 2 finale: Deus-ex-[[spoiler:Jinora. Vaatu fuses with Unalaq and destroys Raava. Korra uses the Tree of Time to pull some super spirit mojo and goes after Unavaatu. So far so good. But it turns out she's not up to the task, and just as Unavaatu begins to use Unalaq's spirit-waterbending technique to corrupt her, Jinora's spirit suddenly appears from spirit aurora over Republic City with an orb of light and showers it on cosmic Korra and Unavaatu, which has the resulting effect of dispelling Unavaatu's spirit-waterbending corruption technique and then jumpstarting/revealing Raava's regrowth inside Vaatu, thus allowing Korra to free Raava and purify Unavaatu]]. |
| 507 | ** Towards the end of the Book 3 finale, Jinora's ability to somehow recognize the poison Zaheer used on Korra as metallic (Mercury evidently). [[note]] However, it was shown earlier that she was using Astral Projection to spy on them; she could have learned this off-screen. [[/note]] |
| 508 | %% |
| 509 | %% Do NOT add natter, complaining, justifying edits, or anything other than a simple representation of the facts as provided by the show to DeusExMachina. |
| 510 | %% |
| 511 | * DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler: Zaheer pulls this when he is able to use airbending to fly like Guru Laghima. It was the first time he had used it, and he wasn't even sure he could have pulled it off. But Laghima's teachings involve "losing your worldly desires"; and with P'Li's death, it's assumed as such that his last worldly desire was lost.]] |
| 512 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: Tenzin and Korra at the start of Season 3. They want to rebuild the Air Nation with the new airbenders that have been popping up since the Harmonic Convergence, but fail to consider the ramifications of those airbenders not being born that way, but rather being granted airbending out of nowhere. As their first "recruit" bluntly puts it, he already has a life and family and has no intention of giving it all up to be a monk just so he can help revive a long dead culture. |
| 513 | ** This is essentially the crux of Mako and Korra's relationship in the first two seasons. Both take turns pursuing each other without considering how it affects others, (namely Bolin and Asami,) let alone each other. |
| 514 | ** This has been a consistent FatalFlaw of an organization as idealistic as the Red Lotus for years from their original plan of freeing [[GodOfEvil Vaatu]] to trying to kidnap Korra in the present without a backup plan then having to improvise to [[spoiler: underestimating The Avatar's strength/will to live in breaking out of her chains to escape.]] Hell, Korra even calls Zaheer out on [[spoiler: killing the Earth Queen that only led to a worse dictator in Kuvira]] that he can't even argue against. |
| 515 | * DieOrFly: In "A Leaf in the Wind", when Korra is on the verge of losing the pro-bending match for the Ferrets, she suddenly ''gets'' how to move like a leaf in the wind. |
| 516 | ** Korra also discovers her airbending when Mako is about to have his bending taken away. |
| 517 | ** At the end of the second season Tenzin, while looking for Jinora, is lost in a fog that drives a person mad with their greatest failures (Kya and Bumi have already gone mad and wandered off). He finally comes to terms with the fact that he is not Aang, and should not compare himself to his father and is able to overcome the effects of the fog. |
| 518 | ** Bumi discovers he can airbend when he's falling off a cliff. |
| 519 | ** Zaheer surmises that [[spoiler:P'li's death has severed his last earthly connection and enabled his ability to fly.]] He tests this theory by jumping off a cliff with Korra in tow. |
| 520 | ** Bolin first lavabends when Ghazan's lava is about to consume him, Tenzin, Asami, and Mako. |
| 521 | ** A variant in "Beyond the Wilds": [[spoiler:Korra finally reconnects with Raava]] because Jinora's life, among others, is on the line. |
| 522 | * DieselPunk: Despite the inspiration of SteamPunk, and use of aesthetics associated with it, the series fits squarely into this category; the internal combustion engine is in wide-spread use and the setting matches the 1920's, with all the cultural trappings. |
| 523 | * DiggingYourselfDeeper: |
| 524 | ** In "A Leaf in the Wind", Bolin correctly presumes that Korra is a [[MakingASplash waterbender]] due to ethnicity and clothing, but Korra [[StereotypeReactionGag trolls him]] by saying she's an [[DishingOutDirt earthbender]] ([[PhysicalGod which she is too...]]). Bolin hastily tries to apologize for MistakenNationality. |
| 525 | --->'''Bolin''': I'm sorry, no, no! I didn't mean to assume! It's that, I was just figuring... with your Water Tribe getup... that you are... a Water Tribe... gal. |
| 526 | ** Mako had been making increasingly snide and flippant remarks about Korra moments before and quickly realizes how dumb a move this was. |
| 527 | * DisappearedDad: Aang was the "present physically, but absent emotionally" sort, enough that it is still a point of contention for Bumi and Kya ''decades later'' with regard to Tenzin remembering their childhood as idyllic and happy, while they do not. Part of it was Aang's sense of duty as the Avatar, but the rest was that Tenzin was an airbender, making Aang no longer the ''last'' that resulted in his playing favorites so dramatically. |
| 528 | ** Unalaq is also the "present physically, absent emotionally" sort. It was originally PlayedForLaughs that Desna and Eska are CreepyTwins who dress and talk alike and who finish each other's sentences. But Unalaq's hunger for power overshadows even his children. He orders them around like lackeys and ignores them when they come to harm. |
| 529 | ** Neither Lin nor Suyin Beifong knew their fathers. We don't hear much about what Su thinks about this, but Lin is ''sensitive'' about the subject. |
| 530 | * DisownedSibling: |
| 531 | ** This happens between Tonraq and Unalaq. During their final confrontation, after the reveal of several betrayals Unalaq took to usurp his throne, Tonraq declares Unalaq is no brother of his. Unalaq is unconcerned. |
| 532 | ** In "The Spirit of Competition", Bolin walks in on Korra kissing Mako, devastating him. Mako finds him at a restaurant, [[ComfortFood stuffing his face with noodles]]. In a fit of InelegantBlubbering, Bolin says Mako's no longer his brother, but a "brother betrayer". Mako is having none of this and drags him out of there. |
| 533 | * DistantSequel: The series takes place 70 years after ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', by which point Aang has died of old age, allowing the Avatar to be reborn among the Water Tribes in the form of the protagonist. Characters from the prequel series, all now famous historical figures, return as either alive but very elderly (Toph, Katara, Zuko), deceased (Sokka) or deceased but still present as spirits (Aang, Iroh). Other characters include the now middle-aged children of the first show's main cast, many with children of their own, and a large city and surrounding fifth nation has been established in the time between the shows. |
| 534 | * DistressBall: In "Turning The Tides," where Lin is defeated by the Lieutenant after attempting to grapple him with her metal cables. The three Airbender children [[BigDamnHeroes come to her rescue]] and save the day. |
| 535 | * DividedDeity: Vaatu and Raava, the Spirits of Darkness and Light, grow within each other until forced to divide apart. This is how each of them reincarnates after death. It's implied they may have originally been a single spirit, given all other spirits have both a light and dark side within themselves. |
| 536 | * DivineConflict: In the two parter "Beginnings" we learn about the light and darkness spirits Raava and Vaatu and their conflict with each other. If either of them wins against the other on the day of harmonic convergence, there will be a 10,000 year age of light or darkness. The latter result, however results in TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and there would be no coming back from that. |
| 537 | * DivineRightOfKings: Amon claims that the divine right granted to the Avatar by the spirits has been rescinded, and that he has the new right to bring balance to the world by destroying all benders. He then proves it by [[DePower removing the bending powers of a number of criminal captives]]. [[spoiler:He's actually an incredibly powerful waterbender combining bloodbending with chi-blocking to essentially surgically block a bender's chi permanently. Whether he believes his claims about bending being evil or not, the spirits have nothing to do with it]]. |
| 538 | * DoesNotDrive: Korra, who had a sheltered childhood and gets anywhere by way of polar bear dog. Her drive with Asami in "A Breath of Fresh Air" marks her development into someone coming to understand and integrate herself into the modern material world. |
| 539 | * DonutMessWithACop: Lu and Gang are particularly fond of Varrick-cakes, a kind of snack cake with frosting and a jelly-filled centre. |
| 540 | * DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: |
| 541 | ** Played With in Bolin and Eska's relationship. On one hand, Eska's treatment of Bolin is emotionally abusive, involves threats, and is played for laughs at least initially. On the other, Bolin is clearly supposed to be the sympathetic one, and Eska is portrayed as dangerous because of her obsession and the lengths she'll go. |
| 542 | ** Played entirely straight in one throwaway line of dialogue from Lin after Mako tells her that Korra trashed his desk after he broke up with her. After getting dumped by Tenzin, she implies she proceeded to go to Air Temple Island and utterly trash it in a jealous rage. And there isn't the slightest bit of shame or embarassment in her voice. She looks back on it fondly. |
| 543 | * DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: |
| 544 | ** The 1920's environment and the Equalists' rhetoric about overthrowing the ruling class mirrors the revolutionist organizations that sprang up in industrializing countries during the late-nineteenth/early-twentieth centuries. |
| 545 | ** In "The Revelation" the staging of Amon's removing the bending of the leader and members of the Triple Threat Triads is set up like a public execution, a scene which is inevitably repeated when he does it in later episodes - when the Equalists start debending people in bulk it is presented in the manner of methodical mass executions. |
| 546 | ** In "The Spirit of Competition" Bolin sees Mako and Korra kissing after Bolin had gone on a date with her the day before, and spends the night [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows]] [[DrunkOnMilk with noodles]], [[HangoverSensitivity acting hungover the next morning, and throwing up after a hit to his gut]]. |
| 547 | ** Part of the backstory of Tonraq and Unalaq, Korra's dad and uncle, is disturbingly similar to Iroh and Ozai's backstory: a younger and more ambitious little brother eventually "replaces" his older brother -- a more calm and kind person, a retired soldier and legitimate heir -- as leader of their people. And, like Ozai, Unalaq orchestrated a plan to remove his older brother from his birthright to the throne. |
| 548 | ** The Book Two episode "Peacekeepers" revolves around the debate of whether or not "the United Republic" has a right to invade another country just because a "cultural center" was violently attacked by attackers who may or in fact may not actually ''be'' from that other country to begin with. The War on Terror parallels are there. |
| 549 | ** You could also look at it as a "War of Northern Aggression" (as they call it in TheDeepSouth) and/or [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea the charismatic leader of the North wanting to reunite with the South]]. |
| 550 | ** The Earth Queen's complaints about the Fire Nation colonies taking land from the Earth Kingdom to make the Republic parallels 19th Century China's troubles when Japan and the Western Powers began snatching major port cities for trade. You could even say her insistence that Republic land is Earth Kingdom land mirrors the One China Policy in the PRC. |
| 551 | ** [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Citizens of Ba Sing Se are required to keep portraits of the Earth Queen in their homes]]. |
| 552 | ** [[http://i.imgur.com/MIYUZby.jpg The new uniforms]] of Kuvira's "order-bringing" metalbending army are pretty blatantly reminiscent of WWII-era German uniforms and helmets. |
| 553 | ** The whole spirit vine super weapon plot is very similar to the race between the Allies and Axis to build the nuclear bomb during WWII. The Spirit Cannon is a lookalike for the [[http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/875/602/49f.png Schwerer Gustav]], a Nazi artillery weapon. |
| 554 | ** ''Nuktuk of the South,'' the "mover" starring Bolin in season 2, is [[Film/TheBirthOfANation1915 a propaganda film about a north against south civil conflict]] which blatantly [[Film/NanookOfTheNorth mixes fact and fantasy in its portrayal of arctic inhabitants]] in an era where motion picture technology is still brand new. |
| 555 | * DoNotAdjustYourSet: Amon hijacks radio broadcasts to spread his message. |
| 556 | * TheDoorSlamsYou: |
| 557 | ** In "A Leaf in the Wind" Korra has great difficulty getting through the [[SmashingHallwayTrapsOfDoom obstacle course]] posed by the airbending training gates, getting smacked around like a pinball. |
| 558 | ** The spinning gate gauntlet returns in Book Three, with Meelo [[DrillSergeantNasty running several new airbender recruits through it]]. |
| 559 | * DoubleMeaningTitle: Book Two's "Civil Wars: Part 1" refers not just to the Water Tribe's troubles but the familial problems of Korra's and Tenzin's families. |
| 560 | * DownerEnding: |
| 561 | ** "When Extremes Meet" ends with Mako, Asami and Bolin in jail and Korra being driven by Tarrlok to somewhere where she'll "never be found". |
| 562 | ** "Turning the Tides", which ends with the Equalists conquering Republic City and Air Temple Island, forcing Tenzin's family and Team Avatar to go into hiding. Lin also gets de-bended by Amon. |
| 563 | ** At the end of Book 3, even though Korra has won the day, she is both physically and mentally damaged by [[spoiler:the Red Lotus' attempt to poison and then kill her]], and fears that she is no longer fit to be the Avatar. The season ends on a shot of Korra crying. |
| 564 | * DownToTheLastPlay: Happens in "The Spirit of Competition", with the Fire Ferrets' second tournament match. |
| 565 | * TheDragon: |
| 566 | ** Hiroshi and the Lieutenant are BrainsAndBrawn-style CoDragons to Amon. |
| 567 | ** Saikhan was unwittingly this to Tarrlok, until Tarrlok exposes himself as a bloodbender and Korra's kidnapper. |
| 568 | ** Unalaq is this to Vaatu. |
| 569 | ** Zhu Li to Varrick. |
| 570 | * DragonRider: Just when you thought Zuko couldn't get any more awesome, check out what he's like in his old age. |
| 571 | ** Also Korra during the climax of A New Spiritual Age rides the dragon bird spirit. |
| 572 | * DreamingOfTimesGoneBy: Given Korra's spiritual shortcomings, the best Aang can manage ([[spoiler:until the Book One finale, anyway]]) is to show her relevant flashbacks from his own life in an attempt to warn her about [[spoiler:bloodbending and Yakone's legacy]] as opposed to simply talking to her like Roku did with him. |
| 573 | * DrivenToSuicide: |
| 574 | ** Jinora relates a story she read in a historical novel where a princess was unable to be with the man she loved, so she burned down an entire country via dragon and then jumped into a volcano. |
| 575 | ---> '''Jinora''': It was ''so'' romantic! |
| 576 | ** In "Endgame," [[spoiler:Tarrlok does this, taking Amon with him.]] It's also implied that Korra was considering it before her bending was restored. |
| 577 | ** In the Book 3 finale, after being outnumbered by Bolin and Mako and proclaiming he will never go back to prison, [[spoiler:Ghazan decides to use his lava bending abilities to bring the whole cavern crashing down in an attempt to [[TakingYouWithMe take them with him]].]] Bolin and Mako escape, he doesn't. |
| 578 | * DroneOfDread: |
| 579 | ** An in-universe example: Vaatu's EyeBeam is accompanied by a thrumming bass roar, much like ''Franchise/MassEffect'''s Reapers. |
| 580 | ** This carries over to Book 4, where the same sound-effect accompanies the firing of Kuvira's spirit cannon superweapon. |
| 581 | * DrowningMySorrows: In "The Spirit of Competition", Bolin performs a family-friendly [[DrunkOnMilk variation]], binge-eating tons and tons of noodles after he witnesses [[spoiler: Korra kissing Mako]]. |
| 582 | * DrunkOnMilk: When Bolin has his feelings hurt by Korra, he [[DrowningMySorrows spends the whole night in a noodle shop]], and Mako has to actually carry him home in the morning. |
| 583 | * DyingDeclarationOfHate: Bolin didn't wind up dying, but when forced into a situation where he had to save Varrick from a situation likely to kill both of them that Varrick had caused, he spent what could well have been his last words telling Varrick that he hated him. |
| 584 | * DysfunctionalFamily: Seems to be somewhat of a theme. Even the idealistic members of the old [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Gaang]] didn't all go on to become parents of the year after starting their own families: |
| 585 | ** According to Bumi and Kya, Aang pretty heavily [[ParentalFavoritism favored]] Tenzin at the expense of his two non-Airbender children, to the point that the two older siblings still harbor some resentment, especially in the face of Tenzin's idolizing of Aang. |
| 586 | ** Korra's uncle and her father hate each other. At first, it seems, they just don't get along because of a clash of personalities, with Tonraq the brash, physical type and Unalaq more in touch with his spiritual side. Tonraq's banishment didn't help either. However, their mutual dislike goes much deeper than that. Turns out Unalaq was responsible for Tonraq's exile from the Northern Water Tribe. It's also implied that Unalaq's parenting style has something to do with the Twins being so screwed up. |
| 587 | ** Tarrlok's [[spoiler:and Amon/ Noatak's]] father was a super-powerful bloodbending crime lord and all-around nasty piece of work. |
| 588 | ** Toph's two daughters, Lin and Suyin, aren't on speaking terms. Though Su wants to reconcile, Lin is still bitter about something from their youth. While Lin followed her mother into the Republic City police and Su was a bit of a wild child before settling down, neither one really measured up to their mother's expectations. Things came to a head when Lin apprehended a group of thieves and found Su as their getaway driver. Lin apprehended her sister but Su cut the cable, permanently scarring her sister's face. Toph's response was to tear up Su's arrest report and make Su leave Republic City. Neither was pleased with that outcome. Also, they're half sisters, and neither knows their father. They eventually get better, and this in turn helps Lin shelve her own issues with Toph in Book 4. |
| 589 | ** Surprisingly, one of the least dysfunctional families belongs to Bolin and Mako, who only just found out they even ''had'' a family due to chance on their trip to Ba Sing Se. The two orphans are immediately welcomed into their [[QuirkyHousehold father's extended family]] with open arms. |
| 590 | [[/folder]] |
| 591 | |
| 592 | [[folder:E]] |
| 593 | * EarlyPersonalitySigns: Inverted: While we first see Toph as DaChief of Republic City's police some 30 years earlier (a far cry from the 12-year-old BoisterousBruiser she was in WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender), we meet her again when she's past 80, where she's now much closer to her childhood personality. |
| 594 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: Both Korra and Asami. Korra went through three seasons of hardships relating to her place as the Avatar, while Asami lost her father to conflicting ideologies and had to work to keep her company ([[spoiler:and just when she reconciled with the former, he died]]). [[spoiler: Ultimately, their [[RelationshipUpgrade friendship blossomed]] into TrueLove, and the two walked, [[HoldingHands hand-in-hand]], [[HappilyEverAfter into the Spirit World for a well-deserved vacation]].]] |
| 595 | * EarthWindJuxtaposition: Being a sequel to ''The Last Airbender'', the show contains more examples of Earth/Wind juxtapositions: |
| 596 | ** Earthbender Lin Beifong and airbender Tenzin are former lovers, having grown up together (as the children of Toph and Aang) but hit a rough patch when Tenzin wanted children and Lin didn't. In the present, they have a contentious relationship, though Lin is willing to put her personal feelings aside to protect him and his family. |
| 597 | ** The main villain of season 3 is Zaheer, an airbender who seeks to destroy all governments and institutions of order because he believes that chaos is the natural state of existence. The main villain of season 4 is Kuvira, an earthbender who seeks to bring peace and order through tyranny in the wake of Zaheer's chaos. |
| 598 | * EasyEvangelism: |
| 599 | ** Throughout season 2 President Raiko had absolutely refused to intervene against Unalaq in the Water Tribe Civil having multiple arguments with Korra and ultimately witnessing her try to go behind his back to force the Republic into the war, further destroying his trust in her. But after the dark spirits show up and Korra says Unalaq is behind it, Raiko instantly believes her, despite lacking any actual proof. |
| 600 | ** Averted in season 3 when they try to get the new airbenders to devote themselves to the culture of the air nomads. Absolutely no one takes them up on their offer, except Kai, who had a choice between that and jail. |
| 601 | * ElaborateUndergroundBase: |
| 602 | ** There is a massive factory hidden beneath the Sato estate. |
| 603 | ** Chapter nine shows that there is an entire underground ''infrastructure'' that the Equalists have built across the city, with transports, storage facilities, factories, training areas and even a private prison. |
| 604 | ** In season 3, it turns out all the new Airbenders discovered in Ba Sing Se are being imprisoned in some sort of underground facility by the Dai Li. The Krew initially assumes this base to be the old Dai Li facility under Lake Laogai and head over there to investigate, and discover the Lake Laogai facility has long since been abandoned and flooded. The Airbenders are actually being held in a new Elaborate Underground Base under a new temple the Earth Queen is constructing. Tenzin even notes that Ba Sing Se lends itself well to this type of base, as it has numerous catacombs, sewers, and tunnel systems that can be repurposed as this should the need arise. |
| 605 | * EldritchLocation: The darker parts of the Spirit World, especially the Fog of Lost Souls, a spirit manifesting as a fog that drives anyone within the fog to utter insanity. |
| 606 | * ElectricSlide: In "Welcome to Republic City," the metal-bending police use this to easily chase criminals on the run. |
| 607 | * ElementalBaggage: |
| 608 | ** The metalbender troops wear metal band epaulets which they use to attack their enemies. Subverted with the Zaofu residents; although they do tend to wear metal jewelry, they rarely use it in combat scenarios, if ever. |
| 609 | ** Pieces of Kuvira's armor double as projectiles |
| 610 | * ElementalEyeColors: |
| 611 | ** While largely continuing its predecessor's formula of tying a person's eye color to their home nation and bending element, there are some aversions in multicultural Republic City. The firebender on the pro-bending team the Rabbiroos has green eyes and one of the metalbender cops has amber eyes, for example. Tenzin's three kids are airbenders, but the girls have brown eyes. |
| 612 | ** The three main characters -- Korra, Mako, and Bolin -- play this trope straight. Korra has aqua blue eyes and is natively a Water Tribesman, Bolin has leaf green eyes and is the earthbender, while Mako has amber eyes and is the firebender. Mako and Bolin are a fire and earth bender of the same parents, so while they play the individual eye colours straight, they are also an example of the multicultural nature of Republic City. |
| 613 | ** While not a bender, Asami is definitely of Fire Nation descent given her name and hair color (her father looks straight out of the Fire Nation) yet she has green eyes, a mark of the intermarrying of ethnically Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom citizens in the Fire Nation colonies. |
| 614 | ** In Book 3, this trope is totally averted for the new airbenders borne of the Harmonic Convergence. After this point, many non-benders of all ethnicities start obtaining the ability to airbend out of the blue. The majority of the new age Airbenders are of Earth Kingdom ethnic descent, since the Earth Kingdom is the largest (and by extention, most populous) nation, with likely the greatest amount of non-benders pre-Convergence. Thus, we see many airbenders with green and brown eyes, and the occasional marine-eyed one. |
| 615 | * ElementalPunch: Tahno tries a waterbending-enhanced uppercut on Korra in "And the Winner Is...", though he fails to connect. |
| 616 | * EliteMooks: The chi-blockers, who unlike the gloved Equalists are able to match benders in an even fight--and come out on top. |
| 617 | ** Thanks to his allegiance to Vaatu, Unalaq favored was granted the ability to command Dark Spirits, who, unlike Unalaq's human soldiers, are invulnerable to bending or physical attacks. |
| 618 | ** The Metal Clan, especially compared to the White Lotus and the Dai Li. While all three get banged up when the Red Lotus come calling, the latter two get trounced by the villains in short order while the former come out of their engagements with all their members alive and standing. And contributing to the heroes' [[WeWinBecauseYouDidNot strategic victory]] in "The Terror Within." |
| 619 | ** A higher grade of overall Mook quality is surprisingly prevalent throughout all four books, especially in comparison with the previous series, which had the original Team Avatar frequently mowing down small armies of trained soldiers with little effort. In comparison, Korra and the contemporary Team Avatar frequently struggle against much smaller numbers of enemy fodder, who are often shown to generally eschew typical MookChivalry in favor of highly-coordinated attacks and excellent use of small-group tactics to get the upper hand against an otherwise superior foe. Whether it's metalbending police managing to apprehend the truant Avatar during the first episode of Book 1, Equalist chi-blockers taking down skilled and formidable benders (including the Avatar), Zaofu's security forces managing to stall and ultimately thwart the Red Lotus attempt to kidnap Korra in Book 3, or random Earth Empire soldiers at a border checkpoint managing to give a lavabending Bolin and a band of other skilled benders a serious and hard-fought battle; the overall competence level of Mooks tends to sit a much higher level than it did in ''The Last Airbender''. In fact, with a few exceptions, the Mooks in this series only generally tend to go down like actual Mooks when confronted with tactics specifically tailored to fight them. |
| 620 | * TheEmpire: The Earth Kingdom now has traits of this seventy years after the Hundred Year War. The Earth Kingdom is a despotic autocracy ruled by an evil, tyrannical earth queen. The Queen managed to more or less centralize her authority and asserts it on all the kingdom's lands, except for Zaofu, which seemingly escaped her sphere of influence. Played even straighter in Book 4, where Kuvira takes over and declares a new Earth Empire. |
| 621 | * EmptyPromise: Tenzin tells his children "everything's going to be fine now" in "Turning the Tides". |
| 622 | * EndangeredSpecies: As said by Jinora in "Original Airbenders", the sky bison are now endangered species. Though it doesn't stop [[EvilPoacher poachers]] from catching the babies for the Earth Queen to dine on. |
| 623 | * EndOfAnEra: |
| 624 | ** As of the conclusion of Book 2, [[spoiler:the old Avatar cycle has ended, making the wisdom of the old Avatars lost forever.]] |
| 625 | * TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Every ten thousand years, Raava and Vaatu fight to become the dominant force for the next 10,000 years. If Vaatu wins, this would be the result. |
| 626 | %%* EnemyMine: Since Varrick was the first person at the time to figure out that Unalaq was up to no good, he invoked this to get the heroes to side with him due to their interests involving Unalaq's defeat merely aligning. Later on, it's revealed he wanted to instigate this war and make it bigger, so that he can make more profit from it, backstabbing his allies in the process. Escaping the south alive allowed him to use Team Avatar as a means to an end. |
| 627 | * EnergyWeapon: Vaatu and Raava can both fire these from their bodies. [[spoiler:Spirit!Korra and [=UnaVaatu=]]] also [[BeamOWar exchange these]] at the end of Season 2. |
| 628 | * EqualOpportunityEvil: |
| 629 | ** [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs The Triple Threat Triads]] are an actively multi-ethnic bender organized crime gang. In "Welcome to Republic City" Korra meets and beats a PowerTrio of protection racket enforcers consisting of a waterbender, earthbender and firebender respectively. Other Triad groups, such as the Agni Kais and Red Monsoons, avert this by being element-specific. |
| 630 | ** The Equalists are gender and nationality neutral, so long as you're a non-bender. |
| 631 | ** Same goes for the Red Lotus, or at the very least Zaheer's gang of criminals, which not only includes all types of benders, but also has an equal gender split with two men (Zaheer and Ghazan) and two women (Ming-Hua and P'li). Zaheer himself was a non-Bender before Harmonic Convergence. |
| 632 | * EskimoLand: The Southern Water Tribe city at the South Pole, home of Avatar Korra, her parents, and her Waterbendering ''sifu,'' Master Katara. |
| 633 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: In "Welcome to Republic City" Korra at age four: "I'm the Avatar! And you gots ta ''deal'' with it!" |
| 634 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Even when he was going to take Zolt's bending away, Amon offers him a fair fight before he does so. |
| 635 | ** Subverted in that Amon's [[spoiler:psychic bloodbending technique]] gives him the ability to [[spoiler:dodge any attack]], making the fight anything but fair. |
| 636 | ** While Baatar Jr. in Book 4 is generally a jerk and looks for any excuse to spite his family, even he is unwilling to see any of them be killed, going so far as to try and defy Kuvira's orders. |
| 637 | * EverythingMakesAMushroom: In the Book 1 finale, an Equalist boat goes up in a small mushroom cloud. Notable in that nothing else in any chapter explodes as such. |
| 638 | * EvilCounterpart: |
| 639 | ** Vaatu to Raava. [[spoiler:Unalaq becomes an anti-Avatar after bonding with Vaatu.]] |
| 640 | ** Book 3 introduces a ragtag team of talented misfits composed of Benders of various types led by a bald airbender who was imprisoned for several years, albeit in a prison instead of an iceberg. Zaheer's team even has a female Bender with a disability, but it's not having arms instead of being blind, like Toph. |
| 641 | ** Kuvira is a subtle version of this to Korra. Both are about the same height, build, and personality to make it seem like Korra is attempting to "overcome a past version of herself". |
| 642 | ** Zaheer to Tenzin. Both are skilled Airbenders with similar ideology and both, (in a way), are mentors to Korra. |
| 643 | * EvilDetectingDog: |
| 644 | ** When Amon hijacks the radio, Pabu, who is lounging by a radio, is frightened by his voice and jumps away. |
| 645 | ** Naga is the first to notice the dark spirits in "Rebel Spirit" and "The Southern Lights". |
| 646 | ** Pabu is the one who spots Zaheer and the Red Lotus Clan attempting to kidnap Korra in Zaofu, and wakes up Bolin and Mako to alert them. |
| 647 | * EvilerThanThou: |
| 648 | ** In Book 1, a lot of villains try to pit themselves against Amon. Unfortunately, no one, not even Tarrlok, could compete. |
| 649 | ** In Book 2, The dark spirits are technically enemies to everybody, especially since their leader, Vaatu, is an EldritchAbomination who wants to wipe out human civilizations and plunge the world in an era of darkness. This is averted with Unalaq and the Northern Water Tribe Military, who are allied with them. Varrick, on the other hand, tried to mastermind a war against Unalaq using extreme methods to make profit, but failed to take into account Unalaq's alliance with Vaatu. As a result, Varrick is the only villain who ends up opposing them alongside the heroes. |
| 650 | ** There's also a heroic example (for a [[HeroicComedicSociopath given value]] of "heroic") with Zuko, Desna and Eska in Book 3. Zuko offhandedly brings up hiring a psychotic assassin to kill Avatar Aang back when he was a regular villain; Eska tops that by telling how she ''personally'' tried to kill Korra last season. [[LackOfEmpathy Right in front of her father.]] |
| 651 | * EvilLaugh: Unalaq, both in the Nuktuk mover and in the actual story. |
| 652 | * EvilMakeover: Eska, briefly, in "Peacekeepers". Not that Eska was exactly good before. |
| 653 | * EvilOverlooker: Amon, both in-universe and out. See the [[http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/61387742.html 2011 SDCC promotional poster]], all of the propaganda posters for the Equalists in the show, and Bryan's [[http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/25026086135/here-is-the-final-press-art-i-did-for-the-upcoming finale promo art (minor spoilers)]]. |
| 654 | * EvilPlan: |
| 655 | ** The Equalists plan to end the era of bending and eliminate the bending arts entirely. |
| 656 | ** Tarrlok's was to use the revolution as a means to take over Republic City and be seen as a hero. |
| 657 | ** Unalaq's plan is to merge with Vaatu and become the Dark Avatar. It turns out releasing Vaatu was the Red Lotus's plan, but Unalaq betrayed them just so he can have the power for himself. |
| 658 | ** Zaheer's plan is to bring anarchy/freedom to the world by dismantling all governments. It worked in the Earth Kingdom, but it didn't take. |
| 659 | * EvilPoacher: Three of them in Book 3, stealing baby sky bison for the Earth Queen to make as steaks. One of them even has a sky bison pelt used as a cloak. |
| 660 | * EvilVersusEvil: |
| 661 | ** In Book One, Amon deliberately goes after every antagonist who isn't working for him (the Triads, Tahno, and Tarrlok). This is part of a plan to get public support by casting himself as a hero for punishing the wicked. |
| 662 | ** In Book 2, while Varrick was right in saying Unalaq was up to no good, the former cared for no one but himself. He only goes against Unalaq to magnify tensions created by Unalaq's arrival, and plunge the whole world into a war he could profit from. |
| 663 | ** In Book 3, Korra is captured by the Earth Queen and the Red Lotus goes to Ba Sing Se to rescue her (so that they can use her for their own ends). In addition, taking out the Earth Queen is one of their goals. |
| 664 | * ExactWords: In "A Leaf in the Wind", Tenzin tells Korra she cannot watch a pro-bending match. When he catches her enjoying one on the radio, she points out that he never said she cannot ''listen'' to one. Tenzin, of course, points out that it's a violation of the spirit of the order, if not the letter. |
| 665 | * ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Along with Korra's ImportantHaircut, Mako, Bolin, and Asami get new hairstyles in Book 4 which show that they've grown and matured in the past three years. Mako's spiky hair becomes smart and professional, to suit his role as a bodyguard to a world leader, and also to more sharply contrast with said world leader's foppish nature. Bolin also gels his hair into a smarter look after Kuvira insists it makes him look "intelligent and professional," although the fact he retains his curl at the front, and his "duck-butt" hair re-emerges when Opal ruffles his hair implies that he is still the same person underneath. Asami now wears her hair in a ponytail, indicating that she has grown into her role as business mogul. Also, Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, Eska, and Desna all have longer hair in this Book. |
| 666 | * {{Expy}}: |
| 667 | ** Hiroshi Sato is an expy of Henry Ford, a famous industrialist best known for mass-production of cars. |
| 668 | ** Varrick is this universe's Creator/HowardHughes - an eccentric businessman involved in aviation and film with a [[Film/TheAviator love of cookies]]. |
| 669 | *** As of Book 4, he's also an expy of Enrico Fermi, the Manhattan Project who brought the first nuclear reactor critical. |
| 670 | ** President Raiko is similar in appearance to Sun Yat-Sen, China's first president. |
| 671 | ** The Earth Queen is based, in her appearance and attitude, on Empress Dowager Cixi. |
| 672 | * EyeAmWatchingYou: |
| 673 | ** In "Welcome to Republic City", Chief Beifong gives this to Korra, index and pinky pointed to her eyes, then Korra. Korra gives one heck of a stink face before throwing the gesture right back. |
| 674 | ** Korra gives this gesture to an entire bar full of people in "The Stakeout," warning them to back off before they try to capture her for the bounty on her head. |
| 675 | * ExtremelyShortIntroSequence: By excluding most of the narration, ''The Legend of Korra'''s intro sequence is significantly shorter than its predecessors (at roughly 20 seconds long). It has an extended intro that is only used once. |
| 676 | * FaceDeathWithDignity: All of Amon's victims reacted with struggling and screaming as he prepared to remove their bending until Lin, who after defying his demand that she sell out Korra in return for keeping her bending, simply closes her eyes and calmly accepts what is about to happen. |
| 677 | [[/folder]] |
| 678 | |
| 679 | [[folder:F]] |
| 680 | * FacelessGoons: |
| 681 | ** The Equalists. The chi-blockers wear {{gas mask|Mooks}}s, while the [[PowerFist shock glove]] wielders wear a hood and mask combo that obscures everything below the eyes. |
| 682 | ** Zig-zagged in Book Two. The Northern Water Tribe soldiers are antagonistic, but their faces are fully visible. It's the Southern Water Tribe rebels that cover up. |
| 683 | ** Fully reinstated in Book Four with the Earth Empire's troops, clad in [[PuttingOnTheReich gas masks and helmets vaguely resembling the German ''stahlhelm''.]] |
| 684 | * {{Facepalm}}: |
| 685 | ** In "A Leaf in the Wind", Mako does this when Korra makes her first mistake as their team's replacement player in a pro-bending match. |
| 686 | ** Asami does it in "Civil Wars part 2" when Bolin pays the wrong guys to reverse the KangarooCourt. |
| 687 | ** Bolin himself gives one in "Kuvira's Gambit" when Varrick's reaction to seeing Zhu Li back is...[[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk to act like his old self]]. Zhu Li is not happy about it and lets him know. |
| 688 | * FaceYourFears: |
| 689 | ** Korra tries to face Amon, who absolutely terrifies her, in Book 1 Chapter 4. It only makes things worse. |
| 690 | ** Part of her recovery after Zaheer had her poisoned was to [[spoiler:face Zaheer in prison. It looks like it was also a very bad idea, but the situation precipitates an EnemyMine between the two, and Zaheer helps her get over a part of her PTSD concerning him that blocked her from metaphysically entering the spirit realm.]] |
| 691 | * FailsafeFailure: When Baatar Jr and Zhy Li test [[spoiler: the Spirit Vine weapon]] in Season 4, it starts to overload and Zhu Li announces that the emergency shutoff isn't working. [[spoiler: It's a justified example since Zhu Li sabotaged it in an attempt to destroy the weapon before it can be used]]. |
| 692 | * FailureMontage: Combined with TravelMontage as Team Avatar travels the Earth Kingdom trying to recruit the newly-awakened Airbenders, and showing Tenzin's utter lack of salesmanship as he unsuccessfully tries to convince each one to come learn the Air Nomads ways. |
| 693 | * FamilyPortraitOfCharacterization: The photo Mako and Bolin have of their family. Not only does its existence show that they had two loving parents before they ended up orphaned, but it also emphasizes their contrasting personalities — outgoing and extroverted Bolin is fidgeting, while the serious and introverted Mako is posing properly. |
| 694 | * FakeNationality: InUniverse example. Bolin, who is of Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation descent, plays Nuktuk of the Southern Water Tribe in the "movers." |
| 695 | * FalseCameraEffects: |
| 696 | ** Blurring often transitions from the foreground to the background or vice versa, as if someone is adjusting the focus on a camera. |
| 697 | ** The demonstrations of earth- and airbending in the intro make the "camera" [[CameraAbuse shake slightly]]. |
| 698 | ** Korra and Mako's fight against the chi blockers in "The Revelation" features a moment where the "camera" swivels around Korra and her opponent in a panoramic sweep. |
| 699 | ** A dramatic, shaky zoom and focus is used when [[spoiler:Kuvira's HumongousMecha]] appears in front of Republic City. |
| 700 | * FalseFlagOperation: In "When Extremes Meet," Tarrlok, after putting into effect a curfew for non-benders, cuts the power in the Dragon Flats district, which causes the non-bending residents to protest. Tarrlok brands it as an Equalist rally and had them all arrested, possibly as a way to bait Amon. |
| 701 | * FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: |
| 702 | ** For a show where NeverSayDie is in full effect, Zaheer's on-screen assassination of the Earth Queen with airbending is incredibly graphic and clearly not painless. |
| 703 | ** And then the finale of Book 3 has [[spoiler:Suyin defeating P'Li by metalbending a piece of armor around her head just as she's about to use her combustion-bending.]] We don't see it, but the context makes it pretty clear that just had her ''head blown to smithereens''. [[spoiler:Ming-Hua's death by electrocution]] is fairly brutal as well. |
| 704 | ** [[spoiler:Hiroshi Sato]] is crushed by Kuvira's HumongousMecha. |
| 705 | * {{Fangirl}}: |
| 706 | ** Apparently, Bolin has a ''ton'' of them. During the first pro-bending match's opening in "A Leaf in the Wind", one of them can be heard screaming very loudly "I love you, Bolin!", and Mako's initial attitude towards Korra implies that Bolin brings fangirls to their prep room often. |
| 707 | ** Korra and Asami were both this to the Fire Ferrets and this was the main reason both crushed on Mako. |
| 708 | ** As an Air Acolyte Pema might have been this when she first became infatuated with Tenzin. |
| 709 | * {{Fanservice}}: |
| 710 | ** Mako and Bolin are often shown lounging about in tank-tops, especially in Book 2. |
| 711 | ** Also in Book 2: Bolin in his [[WalkingShirtlessScene Nuktuk outfit]]. |
| 712 | ** In 'The Aftermath', we see Asami, Bolin, and Mako in a pool, complete with swimming costumes. |
| 713 | ** Tonraq [[SarcasmMode just happened to forget]] [[ShirtlessScene to put on a shirt]] when fighting Dark Spirits in ice-cold weather, at night, in a city made of ice. |
| 714 | ** Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Korra's hair being let down in the finale had the fandom ''swooning''! |
| 715 | * FantasticRacism: The Equalist movement claims that benders are oppressing the non-benders of the city. The thing is, they have some legitimate points; there are multiple bending crime gangs which prey on non-benders, the police and army appear to be mostly if not entirely benders, and Republic City is ruled by a council of five benders, one from each nation (Fire, Earth, North & South Water, and Air). On the flip side, Amon talks about "cleansing [benders] of their impurity" and other Equalists have voiced loathing at the thought of benders and non-benders mixing romantically. |
| 716 | ** Very subtly done throughout Book 2, as certain characters tend to think of members of certain nations in terms of stereotypes: |
| 717 | *** The fact that Amon claims his parents are killed by firebenders, as well as Hiroshi Sato calling Mako a "firebending street rat" bespeaks a belief that all firebenders are criminals. |
| 718 | *** Ginger calls Bolin "dumb as the rocks [he bends]". ''Twice''. |
| 719 | *** Unalaq and his children seem to consider the Southerners to be [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain uncultured rubes]], while Tonraq and Varrick view the Northerners as pretentious snobs who love to order others around. Unalaq's view, however carried a much deeper implication to it; he is resentful towards the rest of humanity in general for their perceived lack of respect towards the spirits since their separation from the spirits since Avatar Wan's time. As a result, he feels that by helping Vaatu, the ancient spirit of darkness, he can create a world where spirits rule and humans are brought to heel. |
| 720 | *** Air Nomads seem to have a reputation for cowardice - despite Tenzin's bravery, he still gets people, including his own brother, claiming he has a cut-and-run response to confrontation, because it's a "typical airbender move". |
| 721 | ** Most spirits seem to have an unbelievable amount of belligerence to humans upon first meeting them, even in ages long ago, when Spirits roamed free over most of the world and humans were confined to a few isolated cities. |
| 722 | *** Speaking of spirits, Wan Shi Tong is especially distrusting towards humans for constantly weaponizing his library's knowledge for ages. This distrust is at least justified since Aang, the previous Avatar, and his friends deceived him and acquired information against the Fire Nation decades back in the original series. Learning that a descendant of Aang was found in the library doesn't do much favors and prompts him to sell her out to Unalaq. |
| 723 | ** Kuvira sent fire and waterbenders in Earth Kingdom cities to the re-education camps, isolating them from the Earth Nation citizens. |
| 724 | * FantasticNuke: The spirit vines covering Republic City contain a phenomenal amount of Vaatu's energy. A single piece of vine is enough to blow a massive hole through Kuvira's train. A bomb made from several dozen of them lights the sky with a brilliant purple flash and punches a truly enormous crater in the desert floor. And Kuvira ''wants'' it weaponized. |
| 725 | ** This allusion continues in the end of "Reunion", where Baatar Jr. uses the equivalent of a Geiger counter to find more for harvesting, and judging it stronger than what was used in the example above. |
| 726 | ** Comes to a head in the finale when [[spoiler:the spirit cannon overloads. The resulting explosion could have been lifted straight out of ''Manga/{{Akira}}'', and reduces the heart of Republic City to a spirit plant-overgrown crater.]] |
| 727 | * FantasticRecruitmentDrive: After Harmonic Convergence, Tenzin and Team Avatar go out trying to recruit the new airbenders for the Air Nomads. It doesn't go too well; Tenzin could really use some sales training. |
| 728 | * FantasticVermin: The fauna on the world of ''Avatar'' is dominated by a variety of MixAndMatchCritters, and its urban vermin is no exception. Republic City in particular is home to lizard crows, scavenging creatures with the bodies of reptiles and the heads and wings of corvid birds, which are often seen rooting around the streets for scraps of food, as well as spider rats, household pests resembling rodents with spider legs, |
| 729 | * FantasyCounterpartReligion: The series' cosmology is basically made into a blend of Shinto, Taoism and Zoroastrianism: as with the previous series, {{Nature Spirit}}s are abundant, but the two most powerful ones are embodiments of light and darkness that are constantly fighting for control of the world. |
| 730 | * FantasyLandmarkEquivalent: Republic City is based on a mash-up of various cities as they were in roughly the 1920-30s including Shanghai, New York, Vancouver, and Chicago. The statue of Aang in Yue Bay is inspired by the Statue of Liberty, the Silk Road Bridge is based on the Brooklyn Bridge, and Republic City Park [[spoiler:that later gets renamed Avatar Korra Park]] is based on Central Park with some elements from London's Hyde Park (particularly Speakers' Corner) mixed in. |
| 731 | * {{Fartillery}}: Meelo first airbends his fart to break his fall in an early chapter, later he weaponizes his fartbending against Equalist mooks. |
| 732 | * FascistsBedTime: Tarrlok imposes a curfew on all non-benders in "When Extremes Meet." |
| 733 | * FatherIDontWantToFight: Occurs in Tarrlok's {{backstory}}. His father is obsessed with teaching him how to bloodbend, but Tarrlok hates it and feels it's wrong to do it on the animals they are training on. He finally refuses when asked to bloodbend his brother. In the present day, he still refuses to use he ability until forced to. In a way the same events lead Noatak to also [[FatherIDontWantToFight refuse to "fight"]]. |
| 734 | * TheFederation: The United Republic of Nations, a collection of former Fire Nation colonies created as a fifth nation. |
| 735 | * FeatheredDragons: [[MixAndMatchCritters Dragon bird]] spirits appear during the second season, and resemble crosses between wyverns and golden birds. |
| 736 | * FeministFantasy: A female-led animated action show with a protagonist designed to be [[http://www.npr.org/2012/04/13/150566153/airbender-creators-reclaim-their-world-in-korra athletic and muscular]] is a calculated risk, but, as seen in the page quote above, it's paid off. Featuring a cast of women with varying ages, body types, and motivations, no less. |
| 737 | * FeudEpisode: "[[SiblingTriangle The Spirit of Competition]]". |
| 738 | * FictionalSport: Pro-bending, where teams composed of one waterbender, one firebender and one earthbender compete against each other, trying to gain the most territory or knock out as many opponents as possible before time runs out. |
| 739 | * FieryStoic: PlayedWith with the core trio: |
| 740 | ** Mako is a firebender who can lightningbend, a trait associated with detachment, cool-headed discipline, and a waterbender-like sense of flow. He's also the [[FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling responsible sibling to his brother]], Bolin, a NiceGuy earthbender who [[spoiler:eventually learns to lavabend, thus combining his happy-go-lucky attitude with another sort of fire]]. The most excitable member of the trio is HotBlooded Avatar Korra herself, born of the Water Tribe but a much straighter take on the usual HotBlooded firebender stereotype -- her excitable and direct nature being the reason it takes her so long to master airbending. |
| 741 | ** Downplayed with Season 3's P'li, BigBad Zaheer's lover and second-in-command. She's a combustionbender (like the prequel series' Combustion Man), but while fairly self-serious in general, the bulk of her characterization shown is the [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes deep mutual love between her and Zaheer]], who "showed her what true freedom means." |
| 742 | * FightFireWithFire: {{Defied}}. When the Wolfbats start cheating in their pro-bending match with the Fire Ferrets, Bolin suggests cheating back. Mako shoots the idea down because the Wolfbats bought off the referee. If the Fire Ferrets started cheating, the ref would drop the hammer on them in an instant. |
| 743 | * FingersnapLighter: |
| 744 | ** In "Welcome to Republic City", the firebender of a [[PowerTrio Triple Threat Triad]] pulls this to back up his boss's threat against a shopkeeper who was behind on his protection money. |
| 745 | ** In "The Voice in the Night," Korra manifests a ball of fire in her palm to verify that she can still bend. |
| 746 | * FireStolenFromTheGods: We learn that the first Avatar was a man who stole (well, didn't return) his firebending from the lion-turtle who gave it to him, eventually acquiring all other elemental powers and fusing with Raava the Spirit of Light. On his death, their bond conitnued into his next life. |
| 747 | * FirstGirlWins: For the Mako/Korra/Asami Triangle: Subverted at first, with both girls eventually breaking up with Mako. Played straight in the GrandFinale, though, where [[spoiler:Korra and Asami turn out to be the First Girl to ''each other''.]] |
| 748 | * TheFirstSuperheroes: Episodes "[[Recap/TheLegendOfKorraS2E7BeginningsPartOne Beginnings Part 1]]" and "[[Recap/TheLegendOfKorraS2E8BeginningsPartTwo Beginnings Part 2]]" show the origins of benders and of the Avatar in the world of the series. Where elemental bending was once a temporary ability gifted to humans by lion turtles to protect them in the spirit wilds, Wan and Raava's battle with Vaatu not only turned Wan into the Avatar, the first and only bender able to hold all four elements (and starting the line of reincarnation), but also made the lion turtles decide to leave humanity to its own devices (since they no longer needed protecting from spirits), leaving those who still had bending abilities with them permanently to pass on to future generations. |
| 749 | * FlashbackCut: PlayedForDrama in multiple episodes; after Korra is knocked out, she's briefly DreamingOfTimesGoneBy, with split-second visions of Aang, and his friends Sokka and Toph as middle-aged adults. She eventually gets the full story in "Out of the Past". |
| 750 | * FlowersOfRomance: In one episode, Bolin and Korra spend a night out together, and later Bolin decides to buy her some flowers. However, he goes to give them to her at the exact time that she's kissing Mako, his older brother. [[InelegantBlubbering Bolin]] [[GirlyRun doesn't]] [[DrowningMySorrows take]] [[DrunkOnMilk this]] [[SparklingStreamOfTears well]]. |
| 751 | * FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: |
| 752 | ** Bolin and Mako. Mako is a tightly controlled young man focused on winning the pro-bending prize money to keep himself and his little brother from going back on the streets, while Bolin is more of an easygoing type with a sense of humor and [[TheCharmer a way with the ladies]] and an impulsive streak that leads him into trouble. |
| 753 | ** Tenzin is the responsible sibling to Bumi, his non-bending brother. While Bumi is a competent soldier, he takes his duties and life much less seriously, and is more likely to clown around and tell tale tales of his exploits. |
| 754 | ** Kya and Tenzin briefly argue over which one of them is the responsible sibling. Kya claims her dropping everything to be with Katara after Aang's death makes her the responsible one, while Tenzin states the fact that she had spent her life prior to that drifting around the world disqualifies her. The Fog of Lost Souls indirectly settles the matter when it shows their worst fears. Kya's is getting tied down and Tenzin's is failing what he perceives as his obligations as Aang's son and the only adult airbender. |
| 755 | ** Between the two Beifong sisters, it appears Lin was always the more serious and focused one, while Suyin was prone to fooling around and doing crazy things on a whim. They're both pretty grounded in the present day, though. |
| 756 | * ForcefulKiss[=/=]ShutUpKiss: In "The Spirit of Competition", Korra kisses Mako after he explains that he likes her, but he still likes Asami. He kisses her back. |
| 757 | * ForcedTransformation: In Avatar Wan's time, spirits would occasionally posses a human. The problem is, doing this changes the human to take on aspects of the spirit. Such as a lemur spirit possessing a human, the [[http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Aye-Aye?file=Possessed_hunter.png human would get some of the fur and one ear forever looking like the lemur's.]] |
| 758 | * ForeignRulingClass: |
| 759 | ** By the time of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' the capital of the former Fire Nation colonies (now called the United Republic) has a ruling council with representatives from each of the four nations (two from both the north and South Water tribes and one from the rather severely depleted Air Nomads). When Avatar Korra arrives in Republic City at the start of the series the council is now composed entirely of [[ElementalPowers benders]] which has widened the gulf between them and non-benders (flashbacks that [[BadassNormal Sokka]] was the Southern Tribe's representative in the past), making them kind of "foreign" to their non-bender constituents, something which the [[MugglePower Equalists]] use as part of their rhetoric to bring down the current system. By season two, the council has been abolished and a resident non-bender was elected as president. |
| 760 | ** During the same time period the Water Tribes are ruled by the Northern Tribe's chief [[TheFundamentalist Unalaq]], who isn't thrilled with what he perceives as the spiritual laxness of the Southern Tribe, his decision to effectively put the Southern Tribe under martial law after [[spoiler: Korra unlocks the southern spirit portal]] increases the tensions between the two tribes. [[spoiler: Which may have been Unalaq's intention, as his patron Vaatu feeds on negative emotions]]. At the end of season two [[spoiler: the tribes decide to formally separated and Korra's father Tonrag is named as Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, who used to be Crown Prince of the Northern Tribe before he was banished, but has [[GoingNative married in to the tribe and adapted so much]] that he doesn't really count for this]]. |
| 761 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: |
| 762 | ** One that might not have even been on purpose, is that there are two different people to represent the Water Tribes in the Republic City council. It was probably done to have Tarrlok and Tenzin try to convince more than two people, but even in Republic City, Waterbenders felt divided by the North/South sides. |
| 763 | ** One notable example is one of Tarrlok's lines to Amon in "Out of the Past": "You fool, you've ''never'' faced bending like ''mine''!" [[spoiler:Turns out, he not only has, but he's ''specifically'' faced him before, and it makes the ensuing CurbStompBattle make more sense since Amon knew exactly what to expect.]] |
| 764 | ** During Book 1 Korra receives flashes of Aang's life involving a criminal named Yakone [[spoiler:and after Tarrlok kidnaps her she believes that he was trying to warn her that Tarrlok was Yakone's son and inherited his fathers bloodbending technique. However the first time that Korra received those flashes was after Amon knocked her out in "The Voice in the Night" meaning that Aang was trying to tell Korra that Amon was also Yakone's son.]] |
| 765 | ** Doubling as a FreezeFrameBonus, Amon's debut also shows the blueprints for the mecha suits in the background. |
| 766 | ** In Book 2, Bolin asks Mako for advice on how to break up with Eska. At the end of the conversation, he says "Thanks Mako! I'm lucky you're so good at breaking girls' hearts. Huh, Korra better watch out." Come episode five, Mako actually ''does'' break up with Korra. |
| 767 | ** TheReveal of Varrick as a villain had a lot of this, yet it still remained a genuine surprise for viewers due to his [[CloudCuckoolander wacky personality]]. |
| 768 | *** In "Rebel Spirit", he momentarily loses the goofy tone to his voice when Bolin points out he wasn't levitating, and becomes genuinely intimidating. He uses the same tone of voice to greet Mako after he finds out his involvement in the plot. |
| 769 | *** "Civil Wars" has him leading the revolution against Unalaq, attempting to bribe a judge, and escaping his trial by hiding in a platypus-bear, and he explicitly states his motivation is preserving his wealth. Also his statement that "Honesty is for fools, kid... lie big and run fast!" |
| 770 | *** "Peacekeepers" has him suggest to Asami that she profit from the war by selling her mecha-tanks: |
| 771 | ---->'''Varrick:''' If you can't make money during a war, you just flat-out cannot make money! |
| 772 | *** While in the beginning of "The Sting," he sabotages an interrogation when Mako appears to be getting too close to the truth. |
| 773 | ** Vaatu only ever refers to Korra as Raava, showing that he never considers that Korra, a human, has any power beyond what Raava gives her. Which means he also never considers [[spoiler:that Korra on her own could stand up to him ''without'' Raava.]] |
| 774 | ** Bumi has inherited Aang's knack for predicting the future but doing so in such a wacky way that no-one takes him seriously. Most memorably, in "A New Spiritual Age" he tells Tenzin to wake him up if, say, Korra and Jinora's bodies begin floating around and someone needs to catch them. Cue the episode's climax, when Unalaq suspends the two girls' souls in mid-air and very nearly destroys them - until the dragon-bird Korra helped pulls a BigDamnHeroes and carries her away from the battle. |
| 775 | *** Bumi is able to calm a corrupted spirit by playing his flute, which could have been foreshadowing the events of season 3, where Bumi becomes an airbender, and is shown to have some ability to understand spirits. Bumju's affinity for Bumi supports this. |
| 776 | ** Despite being Toph's daughter Suyin lacks her ability to sense the speed of people's heartbeats to tell if someone's lying. This shows she wasn't taught everything her mother knows and her skill is somewhat lacking in comparison. The next season reveals [[spoiler:she wasn't able to remove every trace poison from Korra's body.]] |
| 777 | ** Korra gets an ImportantHaircut during early season 4, the explicit reason for it being that she doesn't want anyone to recognize her as the Avatar. However, the haircut also makes her look [[spoiler:more masculine than she did before]], and by the end of the seasons she's [[spoiler:in a relationship with the much more feminine-looking Asami, making them a kind of a [[ButchLesbian butch/femme]] couple.]] |
| 778 | ** The Earth Queen makes an off-hand comment in Book 3 about Aang and Zuko “stealing” Earth Kingdom land to create the United Republic. [[spoiler: This seems moot (see also RedHerringTwist) when Zaheer [[KilledOffForReal kills her off]], but then along comes Kuvira in Book 4 to retake that land for her Earth Empire…]] |
| 779 | ** In Book 3, Varrick talks about his next big idea involving magnets as a means of transportation and an improvised (read: bunch of pots, pants, etc.) suit of armor that just seems like a typical Varrick-style gag. Come Book 4 and not only is there a legit maglev railway system that Kuvira uses to travel around the continent, but also the latest model of PoweredArmor that's electrically powered, more humanoid than the Future Industries version and hosts a larger [[WalkingArmory array]] of weapons that keep even the best benders on their toes. |
| 780 | * ForgotAboutHisPowers: |
| 781 | ** The Metalbending Corps and Lin are, by definition, master earthbenders, but rely almost exclusively on their metalbending cables rather than their earthbending, even when it would be exceedingly useful. Justified within the city, as the first episode shows, as large amounts of earthbending can wreak havoc with roadways and buildings. Outside the city, there's less of a reason not to use it, besides maybe being something most average earthbenders couldn't easily defend against. This is ''especially'' evident against the debut of the [[PoweredArmor mecha suits]] that have ''tank'' treads yet none of the officers bother to create holes big enough to make a difference. |
| 782 | ** In "Turning the Tides", Asami tells Mako he could have heated the water himself, being a firebender, instead of needing to ask for more. |
| 783 | ** When fighting extremely powerful Red Lotus members, Mako seems to consistently forget that he can bend lightning, even when it would be incredibly useful. He finally remembers it in "Venom of the Red Lotus", [[spoiler:where he kills Ming-Hua with it.]] |
| 784 | * FountainOfYouth: In "A New Spiritual Age", the FisherKing nature of the SpiritWorld reacts to Korra's fear and negative feelings, causing her to temporarily turn back into a child. |
| 785 | * FourLinesAllWaiting: Despite the biggest [[TimeSkip time gap]] InUniverse at 3 years, Book 3 and 4 were written back-to-back so the events of the former carry over into the latter to the extent there's almost as many sub-plots as episodes to the extent one got {{aborted|Arc}}: |
| 786 | ** [[HeroOnHiatus Korra]] [[spoiler: is recovering physically, mentally and spiritually after being poisoned and nearly killed by Zaheer, plus her feelings for Asami.]] |
| 787 | ** Mako is now bodyguard to [[RoyalBrat Prince Wu]] and personally teach him how to be a better person. |
| 788 | ** [[TheFace Bolin]] [[spoiler: had joined Kuvira's army until finding out how bad it really was and [[HeelFaceTurn defected]]]] and then spends the time after that [[TheAtoner atoning]] for it as well as repairing the rift between him and Opal. |
| 789 | ** Asami had rebuilt Republic City's infrastructure, reconciling with [[spoiler: Hiroshi]], [[TeethClenchedTeamwork working]] with [[spoiler: Varrick]] to build a superweapon to counter Kuvira's and [[spoiler: her feelings for Korra]]. |
| 790 | ** More [[BigScrewedUpFamily Beifong Family drama]]. |
| 791 | ** ''[[spoiler: Varrick]]'' having a HeelFaceTurn and defecting from Kuvira to [[TheAtoner atone]] and even romance [[spoiler: Zhu Li]]. |
| 792 | ** [[BigBad Kuvira's]] [[TakeOverTheWorld campaign]] across the continent. |
| 793 | ** And the AbortedArc being [[spoiler: Zuko's warning about there being other Red Lotus cells that never comes back up beyond Korra confronting Zaheer in his cell.]] |
| 794 | * FourthWallPsych: Tenzin looks directly at the camera when he says "You must promise me that your teenage years won't be like this!" (He's actually talking to his kids.) |
| 795 | * {{Frameup}}: |
| 796 | ** Varrick has Mako blamed for the robbery of Future Industries. |
| 797 | ** In "The Terror Within", one of Zaofu's guards is believed to be behind the Red Lotus infiltrating the city. In fact, the guard is being set-up by Aiwei, "uses" his LivingLieDetector ability to interview the guards and can thus blame whoever he chooses. Varrick even makes a CallBack to the frameup listed above. |
| 798 | * FreezeFrameBonus: |
| 799 | ** At the very beginning of "A Leaf in the Wind", there is a picture of Tahno, introduced in "The Spirit of Competition", on the back page of the newspaper Korra is reading. |
| 800 | ** At the end of "Welcome to Republic City", there are blueprints on the wall to Amon's left, apparently detailing ''MiniMecha''. The mecha themselves appear in "The Aftermath". |
| 801 | ** A man in a yellow suit and a hat with a red feathery puff on top has been featured in numerous crowd shots. Fans have made a game out of finding him. |
| 802 | ** During Book 4 eagle-eyed viewers may notice that on Kuvira's map of territories she wants to unite for the Earth Empire [[spoiler:she has included the areas that belong to the United Republic. It serves as {{foreshadowing}} that Kuvira eventually intends to conquer the United Republic as well.]] |
| 803 | %%* FreudianTrio: |
| 804 | %%** TheKirk: Bolin. |
| 805 | %%** TheSpock: Mako. |
| 806 | %%** TheMccoy: Korra. |
| 807 | %%** Tenzin and his siblings in season two: |
| 808 | %%*** Id:Bumi |
| 809 | %%*** Ego: Kya |
| 810 | %%*** Superego ([[NotSoAboveItAll or so he'd like to think]]): Tenzin |
| 811 | * FriendshipAsCourtship: [[spoiler:Varrick]] and [[spoiler:Zhu Li]] are long-standing comrades but their relationship seems to be on a completely professional level. That is, until [[spoiler:Varrick]] proposes before they go into a dangerous situation. |
| 812 | * FromTheMouthsOfBabes: Ikki pulls this on Korra in "When Extremes Meet". She reveals Korra's crush on Mako to Asami, who was unaware of the crush beforehand. Ikki also likes to comment on stuff that isn't appropriate. |
| 813 | * FullCircleRevolution: |
| 814 | ** The Equalists proclaim they seek to overthrow the oppressive benders, but in doing so prove at least as oppressive themselves. |
| 815 | ** Amon lambasts the audience at the pro-bending championship match for celebrating benders bullying people. Come the finale, the arena is now full of Equalists supporters, and they cheer on Amon as he menaces the three airbender children tied to stakes for the crowd's entertainment. |
| 816 | * FunnyBackgroundEvent: |
| 817 | ** After declaring him "weird," Ikki [[DeathGlare stares]] at Tarrlok for ''twenty seconds''. The stare continues even after the camera pans to the left to focus on Tarrlok's conversation with Korra, where Ikki can be seen at the right of the shot, ''still staring at Tarrlok.'' |
| 818 | ** Easy to miss, given the gravity of this scene: in "A New Spiritual Age", Tenzin and his siblings agreed to take turns keeping watch over Korra and Jinora in the night at the start of the episode, with Tenzin taking the first shift. At the end of the episode, we see he fell asleep ''in a sitting position'' without waking up the next person due to take the watch. |
| 819 | ** In "The Calling," while the air bender kids are taking a pit stop on their search for Korra, a group of spirits or animals in the background can be see continuously knocking each other off of a roof. The spirits'/animals' chirps can even be heard while they are off-screen. |
| 820 | *** In the same episode, after Poki's VomitIndiscretionShot, as the siblings resume talking, the lemur begins to casually eat his own barf. |
| 821 | [[/folder]] |
| 822 |
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