We open much like episodes of the original show did: on a blue background with people bending over it. This time however, it's Avatars doing it; the last four in fact, starting with Kyoshi.
The male announcer then lets us know that he's Aang's son and delivers much needed exposition over a beautifully drawn mural of the Gaang. He covers the first series in one sentence, then moves on to new stuff. Avatar Aang and Firelord Zuko took the old Fire Nation colonies (aka: conquered Earth Kingdom territory that Fire Nation citizens moved into) and built the "United Republic of Nations," a nation of all bending forms.
We then get a zoom-in shot of the capital: Republic City. And it's a very modern-looking place, all things considered, with bridges, sky-scrapers, and the like. There are Asian adornments here and there as well. The music swells into the Avatar Theme as Aang's son tells us that Aang eventually died. But he did get a statue in Republic City bay, overlooking the city like the Statue of Liberty. Aang's son promises us that the Avatar Cycle would begin anew.
Cue title shot.
Cut to a snowy field in a snowstorm. Three figures march across the bleak landscape to a small village. There, they meet a man who invites them into the house, and lets the audience know that they're members of the Order of the White Lotus. The OWL aren't convinced that this claim will be verified, but the man's wife assures them that their search is over. Then...
Oh God...
LilKorra introduces herself by earthbending through the wall. I'll just ignore the question of why an igloo would have stone walls in favor of wondering why she's breaking her own house. She then says that line I quoted in the intro and proceeds to fire and waterbend.
We Smash Cut from her firebending at the screen to the 16-year-old Korra fighting some firebenders as part of training. An old woman who's the spitting image of Gran-Gran from ATLA remarks that she's strong, but one of the OWLs is less pleased, saying that she's unrestrained. Korra whips the firebenders handily, then tells the old woman and the OWLs that she's got three elements down. Right, because being the Avatar and performing her duty to the world is all about scoring points to her.
The OWLs are less than impressed, expositing that she may have mastered the physical side of bending, but missed the spiritual side. Korra remarks that it just doesn't come as easily to her, but Tenzin, presumably her airbending teacher to be, is all about the spiritual stuff, so she'll learn it then. The OWLs then ask "Master Katara" for her assessment; she figures Tenzin can straighten Korra out. So the OWLs agree, much to Korra's delight.
Cut to Korra talking to Naga about her victory. Naga is apparently a Polar Bear-Dog, large enough for Korra to ride on. Sure why not. She then takes Naga out for a ride, but has to get clearance to leave the compound from an OWL guard.
So. You found the Avatar and then decided that what the 4 year old needed was to be sequestered from the world for the next 12 years and immersed in bending training. Did they learn nothing from what Aang had to go through, due to the Air Nomad's pushing him to be the Avatar so early? No wonder she acts like she's hellfire with spurs on; that's what you taught her to be.
Cut to a Sky Bison that is definitely not Appa landing in Korra's Kompound. So yes, they decided that there were still other Sky Bisons around. As it lands, we get a lot of "Are we there yet?"s in a high-pitched voice. As the Bison lands, we meet the announcer, Aang's son, Tenzin. He's traveling with his family. The high-pitched voice belonged to his youngest daughter Ikki, and his only son is gnawing on Tenzin's bald head. That's Meelo, or as I like to call him, SOATIGOTE: Scourge Of All That Is Good On The Earth. He's one of the primary tools for injecting Komedy into Korra's rather dark story.
Joy.
The family gets off the Bison and they are greeted by Katara. Sorry, Master Katara. And then, to the everlasting hatred of Zutarans everywhere, Tenzin reveals that Katara is his mother. He's grateful to see her again, as she removes the SOATIGOTE from his head.
Then Tenzin's eldest daughter Jinora goes to Katara and says that she's been reading about the Gaang's adventures. And we get this exchange:
OK writers, for that, I grant you absolution for any sins you have committed or will commit this episode. There is nothing I love more than when creators troll their own fanbase. The writers have apparently dual-classed in both Worldbuilding and Trolling. And this degree of trolling, which happens within the work itself, clearly shows that they have reached Epic Levels in their Trolling class. Even better, it's the troll so nice they trolled it twice: they did the same troll in The Promise.
Tenzin goes to help his very pregnant wife, Pema, get down off the Bison. Katara touches her stomach and declares that it'll be another strong Airbender. This doesn't go over well with Pema, who's apparently tired of all the airbending directed towards her. Hey, it could have been worse; you could have been Korra's mother. God only knows how many homes they had to go through...
We then learn that Tenzin has two other siblings, Kya and Bumi, who were a lot less serious than he was. While Katara and Pema are talking, Tenzin notices Korra there and they greet each other. Korra's ready to start her airbending training, but Tenzin has to deliver bad news: he's not staying to teach her.
Cut to dinner. Tenzin explains that, as one of the leaders, he needs to stay in Republic City to take care of the situation there which is currently delicate. Korra says that he also has a responsibility to train her. OK Korra, I'm going to let that bit of It's All About Me-ness slide because of the epic trolling.
Don't let it happen again.
Korra suggests the logical option: she moves to Republic City. One of the OWLs slams down on it, because the city is "too dangerous." Aang wanted her kept safe. Um, guys, when he said "safe," I pretty sure he didn't mean "prisoner."
... Oh God, I'm starting to think like her.
Tenzin just says that it's not her time to learn yet; she blows them off and walks out. Cut to Tenzin bidding a tearful Katara goodbye and flying off on his bison. Korra's with Naga on the edge of a cliff as the bison flies by. Korra makes a determined face as the music swells.
Cut to night-time, when Korra sneaks off to saddle Naga; Katara catches her, but doesn't stop her. Then we find out that Sokka's dead, probably cut down by a vengeful Aunt Wu when he revealed her fortune telling to be utter crap by so thoroughly defying it. Katara says that it's time for Korra's generation to take over the responsibility of safeguarding the world. Um, Katara, if you were fine with this, why didn't you tell the OWL guy to take a hike earlier? It would have settled the whole issue right then. I'm pretty sure the word of Master Katara is more important than the OWL's. And if it isn't, you could just dismantle the entire compound and tell the guys to get the hell out of your Southern Water Tribe.
Korra waterbends through the snow to leave the compound. Then she goes to say goodbye to her parents. So not only was she kept away from the rest of the world, she was separated from her family? What the hell were the OWLs even thinking? Were they all high when Aang charged them with taking care of the next Avatar, so they thought he meant, "screw her up so my legacy will never be surpassed?"
Cut to Korra in a ship's cargo hold with Naga, as music plays over her journey to the new world. After some scenes of the ship, the hold opens and we get our first up-close look at Republic City. There are metal blimps (because that makes sense), cars (Satomobiles), great bridges across the bay, and many elements of late-industrial-era society. She stares at the giant statue of Avatar Aang. She wants to go to Air Temple island, but Naga wants food, so they go get food.
By causing several traffic accidents, since they just run out in the middle of the street. Good job, Korra; you haven't been here five minutes and you're already responsible for property damage.
They eventually find a food stand, but Korra forgot to bring money. I'm sure Korra was in a hurry; I'm sure we'll see her planning and foresight used much better in the future. The shopkeeper is not sympathetic, so they leave and head to a lake in the park to go fishing. Korra firebends her fish, then a hobo appears. Um, OK. He asks for some fish, and they talk for a bit. Korra's surprised to find homeless people in the city.
Then the police arrive to tell her that fishing in the lake isn't allowed. So she and the hobo run for it. Fortunately for Korra, the officer is out of shape and can't run after her Polar-Dog.
Cut to Korra encountering a protester with a megaphone decrying the "bending establishment." He's promoting the "Equalist" movement, who are against bending and benders. Korra, as the living embodiment of all bending, is naturally affronted at his anti-bending attitude. After he confirms that she's a bender, he says that she probably wants to attack him. She says she's considering it, thus making his point for him: that benders oppress non-benders. This turns the crowd against Korra.
She then says, "I'm not oppressing anyone; you're oppressing yourselves!" What are you, five? That didn't even make sense, Korra.
... OK, if the series is going to make my snark for me, what am I even doing here?
Korra, having been thoroughly shamed, leaves. Korra asks for directions to Air Temple island (figuring that Tenzin probably has food and/or money). But before she can get them, a red car pulls up and the lady she was talking to tells Korra to run for it. Three goons get out and start extorting protection money from a guy.
Korra figures that this is a job for the Avatar, so she interrupts. They laugh at her, and tell her that the Triple Threat Triad owns this area, so she should run. Korra, clearly spoiling for a fight after the mob shamed her before, eggs them on when they ask who she thinks she is.
One of them waterbends at her, but that doesn't end well for him. She takes down the other two, as the onlookers realize that she's the Avatar. She even throws one of them through a storefront window. I'm sure the owner didn't need those clocks... As Korra gloats over the one she threw into a window, the other two start driving off, so she earthbends their car. Into another store. Well thanks Korra, you have successfully managed to cause more damage than the hoodlums.
A siren sounds from above and guys wearing armor with cables shooting out of their arms fall from an airship. They're the police of Republic City, and Korra recognizes them as metalbenders. Sure why not. Korra shows the officers the criminals, and they promptly use their metal cables to tie them up. Then they try to arrest Korra. Oh right, the wanton destruction of private property.
So Korra runs for it on Naga, accompanied by Asian Jazz tunes. She's doing pretty well, as these metalbenders have apparently forgotten that they can earthbend too. Though she makes it pretty far, a Polar Bear Dog is not exactly inconspicuous from the air, and she's eventually captured by an airship.
Cut to police headquarters, where a statue of their founder, Toph Beifong, looms over the entrance to the building. An older woman starts reading off the list of charges against Korra. She tries to explain that a guy was being attacked, but the woman isn't tolerating it, saying she should have called the police. Korra tries to pull the whole Avatar thing, but that gets no respect from this woman. Korra tries going over her head, but there is nobody over her head. She's Police Chief Beifong. Lin Beifong, daughter of the original.
I guess Toph sunk her family's fortune into building a police force.
Korra tries to get Beifong on her side by citing Toph, but that isn't happening. The Chief says that Korra isn't allowed to run around her city like a vigilante. Then Tenzin arrives, which really rains on Lin's parade. He tries to compliment Lin, but she tells him to cut the crap. He then says that Korra's going back to the Southern Water Tribe, provided that Lin releases her. Lin reluctantly agrees when he says he'll cover the damages she caused.
On Korra's way out, Lin lets her know that she'll be keeping her eyes on her. A gesture that Korra mockingly returns, which results in little more than a shrug and an eye-roll from Lin.
Outside, Korra asks Tenzin to let her stay, but he would rather defer to the OWL. Korra tells him that Katara agreed, but Tenzin is more upset that she brought up his mother. Korra says that Republic City needs him, but it also needs her as the Avatar to help fix its problems. Tenzin remains reluctant.
There's a nice, quiet scene where they're sailing to Air Temple island and Tenzin looks up at his father's statue, then back at Korra, who looks wistfully at the city. At the docks, some OWLs are there to escort her back home. Tenzin's family drops by to see Korra. But as she walks away, Tenzin decides to relent and let her stay. Because there wouldn't be a show otherwise.
Cut to a press conference the next day, where Korra introduces herself to the city. Lin Beifong is there, looking politely unhappy to be there. Reporters ask her a bunch of questions, about fighting crime, anti-benders, and other such things. For the first time in the series, Korra loses her usual self-confidence and looks uncertain about this whole public speaking thing. She falters a bit at the start, but then makes a couple of heart-felt sentences about making the city a great place.
Cut to an obvious villain lair, where someone is listening to Korra over the radio. An obvious badguy wearing a full body leather suit and goggles asks "Amon" how they're going to deal with this problem. A hooded figure in a mask muses that the Avatar is earlier than they expected. So they'll have to step things up a bit.
The Kareful Kase of Korra
I don't think you could ask for a better introductory episode than that. In 22 minutes, they managed to get introduce the main character, her basic character traits, how she grew up, her arrival in the new world which mirrors our own, give her some interaction with important people, and touch on many of the major plot, character, and thematic elements that Korra will face over the next 11 episodes.
That's pretty damn good for 22 minutes of screen-time. They even managed to find time for some epic-level trolling of their own fanbase.
One downside of the intro episode is this: I can't imagine what it must be like for someone who isn't familiar with ATLA to walk into this episode. It makes little effort to establish the world the way the pilot of ATLA did. It just throws the world at you and expects you to either be familiar with it or play along. It doesn't explain many elements, to the point that a new person would be pretty much lost by the end of it. That's not a good thing.
But then again, when you've only got 12 episodes, you need to focus your time on your storytelling, not world introduction.
Time for the elephant in the room: what about Korra? In the intro, I stated some potential concerns I had with her as a character. I was concerned about them going for the hyper-confident, hyper-competent route, leading into a character trap that would make her one-dimensional and boring.
And... that was exactly the route they took, wasn't it? From quite literally her very first lines, that's who Korra was. And she didn't mellow out in the ensuing 12 years. Well, maybe a little.
But there was one difference: the world didn't care.
Yes, Korra is a braggart, swaggering through the city doing whatever she wants. But rather than her being hailed as the savior of all of Republic City's ills, she gets carted off to jail and is given a stern lecture from Chief Toph 2.0 not to shit on her lawn. She sees an anti-Bending protester and confronts him. But instead of him fleeing in fear of the all-powerful, super-confident Avatar, he stands up to her. Indeed, her antics play right into his hands, making his arguments all the stronger and more persuasive.
After 22 minutes of this series, I could only conclude that Korra was a Deconstruction of this kind of character. And that made me actually like her, when I normally find such characters grating and annoying*. Why? Because here, the rest of the world agrees that they're grating and annoying. This means that the writers clearly see some of these character elements as flaws, things she is going to have to change about herself. Flaws that will be addressed and corrected over the course of the series.
Because as it stands, Korra isn't ready to save anyone.
And that makes sense. After all, if a character is going to have a journey, there's no point in starting that journey at the end. You have to have some room for a character to grow into, right?
Damn you, Legend of Korra writing! Stop making me not hate Korra!
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