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Beware of unmarked spoilers. All Book One spoiler markers have been removed.

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    General 


  • Adaptation Expansion: The characterization and screentime of Zaheer's group is greatly expanded upon in this story.
  • All for Nothing: Despite imprisoning and training Korra for fourteen years, she eventually escapes from them and lives on her own for a while. Their actions and lies eventually cause her to turn against them.
  • Badass Crew: All of them are dangerous to fight against.
  • Big Bad: The Red Lotus act as this for Book One.
  • Broken Pedestal: They become this to Korra over the course of the story as she learns more about the lies and half truths they told her about.
    • They officially become this after the events of Chapters Fourteen and Fifteen when they kill Yujin, nearly kill her friends, and nearly kill her after she fails to kill Unalaq.
    • By Chapter Seventeen, the Pedestal is completely broken, and she fights against them personally during Chapter Eighteen.
    • During Book One's finale, she tries to not acknowledge them as her teachers, but as simply the 'Red Lotus.'
  • Didn't See That Coming: Zaheer’s plan spanning over a decade, enforced by a multi-national terrorist organization with some of the world’s greatest benders as members, who had evaded world leaders and even the previous Avatar in their quest to rid the world of leaders and governments was ultimately undone by several things the group didn't expect:
    • A five-year old Asami who made friends with then four-year old Korra who told her of a much more pleasant side of the world than the Red Lotus had ever taught her which caused Korra to have doubts about their teachings and not fully embrace them. This eventually became a contributing factor to Korra running away at the start of the story.
    • They did not expect Avatar Aang being able to contact her which led to Korra to runaway along with deciding not to kill Unalaq and her eventual rebellion.
    • The Red Lotus also underestimated Korra's companions: Mako used torture to sabotage their plan to use her parents are hostages, and Korra believed Bolin's stories about the old Team Avatar.
    • Ultimately, in the final battle, they expected Tenzin to come and didn't expect Korra to confront them once and for all, and they did not expect Korra to be strong enough to defeat them all.
  • Didn't Think This Through: They never considered the fact that keeping Korra isolated from the world rather than showing her it, especially the decaying state of the Earth Kingdom, might be counterproductive and cause problems if she ever decided to runaway and saw that not everything they said is accurate.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Zaheer and P’Li are confirmed as lovers like the canon. And while things between Ghazan and Ming Hua are left ambiguous, all four of them do seem to value each other’s lives much moreso than anyone else’s.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Even though they kidnap all the children in Korra's village who were between three to four, they let all the other children go after they discovered Korra was the Avatar. They gave the children enough supplies to live until the search party was able to find them.
  • For Want Of A Nail: In this story, Korra is kidnapped by the Red Lotus prior to the White Lotus confirming her identity. As a result of the Red Lotus making their move first, Korra had fewer people to protect her, and the Red Lotus were successful.
  • Four Is Death: Zaheer's main group composed of himself, Ghazan, Ming-Hua, and P'Li are all dead at the end of Book One either directly or indirectly by Korra's hand.
  • Gone Horribly Right: They wanted to make Korra a powerful bender who could be a weapon. The succeeded, but it backfired.
  • Hoist by Their Own Petard: The overall fate of the Red Lotus, their teachings have made Korra an extremely skilled and powerful fighter. During the final fight, Korra uses her teacher's own techniques against them in order to defeat them.
  • In Spite of a Nail: Similar to canon, their own techniques are part of the reason for their undoing.
  • Irony: They wanted to make Korra weapon to fight for them, but she ends up fighting against them after she learns they kidnapped and lied to her.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Kidnapping Korra as a child and putting her through a Training from Hell regiment for fourteen years eventually leads to their defeats at Korra's hands.
  • Parental Substitute: Regardless of how abusive they were towards Korra, it does not change the fact they were the closest thing Korra had to parents during her fourteen year disappearance. Tenzin comments on that during the beginning of Book Two.
    Tenzin: It will be difficult. As much as she seems to have accepted Tonraq and Senna, she won't be able to easily escape the fact that the Red Lotus were effectively her parents. Terrible, awful, manipulative parents, but they were stillth e ones who raised her despite that.
  • Villain Ball: When they trespass on the Sato Mansion, they are noticed by Yujin who they decide to kill before he can alert the authorities rather than restrain her. Due to killing her and not hiding her corpse well enough, this causes Korra to become further disillusioned, and it alters Korra's friends to intruders.
  • Villain Has a Point: While Korra becomes somewhat disillusioned by their teachings over the course of the story, she does know they also had a number of good points too.
  • Villainous Legacy: Their actions in Book One along with what they did to Korra will cause them to take this role throughout the story. Not only will Korra and her friends have to deal with the aftermath of the Red Lotus’ actions, but the effects they had on Korra’s psyche will continue to affect her well into the future.
  • Would Hurt a Child: The Red Lotus kidnapped many children in order to find the Avatar. After they discovered Korra was the Avatar, they put her through a Training from Hell regiment.

    Zaheer 


Zaheer

The leader of this particular cell of the Red Lotus. He led the group to successfully kidnap Korra when she was three years old.


  • Affably Evil: As in canon, though he switches between this and Faux Affably Evil sometimes.
  • Anti-Villain: Like in canon, he is committed to the achievement of freedom from oppressive leaders, except his means of doing so are heinous in nature.
  • Arch-Enemy: Even though every member of the Red Lotus has become a Broken Pedestal to Korra, after he pressures P'Li to shoot through Korra to finish off Unalaq and she learns of her childhood abduction, Zaheer becomes her most bitter and personal foe.
  • Badass Normal: Despite not having any powers, he is strong enough to hold his own against almost anyone.
  • Big Bad: Of Book One.
  • Blatant Lies: His usual dialogue with Korra is a mixture of lies and half-truths.
    • When the Red Lotus was taking Korra from her home and tells her that her parents are dead, he assures the three year old girl that the Red Lotus will collectively act as a Parental Substitute, he instead subjects Korra to fourteen years of Training from Hell.
    • He keeps telling her how cruel the world is. While there is some truth to what he says, he made the mistake of overly generalizing it which caused Korra to doubt him.
  • Broken Pedestal: Along with the rest of the Red Lotus, he becomes this to Korra over the course of the story. He also briefly becomes this to P'Li after the failed assassination attempt on Unalaq in which he told her to shoot at Korra.
  • Cruel Mercy: From Korra, who spares his life after she defeats him and blocks his chi. She sees him as being a shell of a man and decides not to imprison him despite what he did to her. However, he knows that all of his friends from the Red Lotus are dead like in canon and they all died for nothing.
  • Death by Adaptation: Unlike the other members of the Red Lotus, he is a Type I because he is still alive in canon. By transferring his spirit to the Spirit World his body will die eventually. However, his spirit might return in the future.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: In a flashback, when Korra angrily attacked him, he paralyzed her with chi-blocking and was going to leave her alone in the snow before being convinced not to by Ghazan and P'Li.
  • Evil Mentor: To Korra
  • Foreshadowing: Tenzin mentions one of the Red Lotus leaders released his spirit into the Spirit World to avoid truly being captured. Zaheer does the same thing at the end of Book One.
  • Hero Killer: Nearly kills Asami.
  • Hypocrite: He tends to be this.
    • He speaks about the importance of freedom and life, but he took Korra's freedom when she was a child and he was fine with killing Yujin who was an innocent bystander.
    • Once criticized Korra for not being a Combat Pragmatist, but later calls her a coward for not being willing to fight him fairly. She does, and still defeats him.
  • Kick the Dog: This can be the description of his relationship with Korra.
  • The Leader: Of his particular group.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He does not have any interactions with Korra in which he is not manipulating or at least trying to manipulate her in some way.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The hellish training that he subjected Korra to has made her even more skilled and powerful than she was in canon. Also, his tutelage of Korra has allowed her to develop an impressive intellect and his meditative training of her has made her more spiritual than her canon counterpart, which allows her to unlock her air-bending abilities sooner than in canon.
  • Revenge by Proxy: A possible interpretation for Zaheer's abusive treatment toward Korra since she is Aang's successor and reincarnation while Aang proved to be a Broken Pedestal to him.
  • Shoot the Dog: Tells P'Li to finish off Unalaq even if Korra is in the way, which she is.
  • Villain Has a Point: Korra notes that he is right about some of the problems plaguing the world, such as inequality and corruption, even though he has lied about a few other things.
  • Villainous BSoD: Suffers one after discovering P'Li is dead after fighting Korra in Chapter Eighteen. Revealed later that his catatonic state was the result of him permanently transferring his Spirit to the Spirit World.
  • Would Hit a Girl: He slaps Korra across the face during Chapter Fourteen with enough force to cause her to bleed and have trouble with her vision. He also has Yujin killed and would have killed Asami had it not been for Korra.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Is constantly rearranging his plans in order to best suit the current situation, he only fails due to several unpredictable outside factors.

    Ghazan 

A talented earthbender who has mastered the rare ability of lavabending.


  • Adaptational Heroism: Ghazan shows slightly more hesitation in following through the Red Lotus' plans even though he ultimately goes through with them.
  • Affably Evil: He is the nicest of the Red Lotus by far.
  • Character Death: See Cruel and Unusual Death.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: The final battle against Korra does not end well for him. He is killed after falling into a lava stream.
  • Death by Adaptation: Type II. In canon, he does not die until after Harmonic Convergence during Book Three. In this story, he dies at the end of the first story arc about a year before Harmonic Convergence. Additionally, he is the first of Zaheer's main group to die rather than the third.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He had the most standards out of the Red Lotus.
    • He was appalled by Ming-Hua killing Otter Penguins let alone doing it in front of Korra since they were her favorite animal before getting Naga.
    • When Zaheer left Korra out to freeze in the snow after losing to Zaheer, he believed Zaheer was going too far.
  • Irony: He is the nicest to Korra out of the group, and he suffers a horrific death at her hands even if it was partly by accident.
  • Karmic Death: He tried to kill Korra with lavabending, but fighting Korra ended up causing him to fall into his own lava.
  • Pet the Dog: Just about sums up his relationship with Korra.
    • When Korra is taken from her home at the age of three, he stays with her until she cries herself to sleep.
    • He convinces Zaheer not to leave Korra out alone in the cold after she loses a sparing match with him.
    • He allows Korra to keep Naga after she finds her, and he seems to take pity on the fact Naga lost her mother.
    • He did not kill Naga during Chapter Fourteen and simply restrained her.
  • Token Good Teammate: Is the most moral member of the Red Lotus and by far the nicest to Korra.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Zig-zagged. He did assist in kidnapping Korra when she was three and train her to become a terrorist, but he treated her the best out of the Red Lotus, and did not physically or mentally harm her during her childhood years unlike Ming-Hua, and he seemed to be the most concerned for her well being.

    Ming-Hua 

An armless waterbender who can use water as appendages to great, and startling, effect.


  • Adaptational Villainy: Lacks any of the Affably Evil traits that she had in canon and while her canon version valued the lives of other Red Lotus members, in Saga her cruelty even extends to inflicting her fellow Red Lotus members if they mess up.
  • Ambiguous Situation: Her fate at the end of Chapter Eighteen is left up in the air. Korra claims to have found her unconscious, but she believed P'Li was unconscious before realizing P'Li was dead. Korra believes her to be dead in Chapter Nineteen but it is revealed that while Korra did not kill her, the injuries she gave to Ming-Hua are severe and she is not expected to survive.
  • Artificial Limbs: As in canon, she uses waterbending to create some.
  • Ax-Crazy: Just like in canon.
  • Bullying a Dragon: From what has been shown, her entire relationship with Korra is of Ming-Hua being The Bully. Except in this case her victim is the master of all four elements and the most powerful being in the world.
  • Death by Adaptation: Assuming she dies from the wounds Korra gave her, she will be a Type II. In canon, she does not die until after Harmonic Convergence during Book Three. In this story, she dies at the end of the first story arc about a year before Harmonic Convergence.
  • Karmic Death: Besides Zaheer, she treated Korra the worse. She is terribly wounded by Korra during their fight and will eventually succumb to the said injuries.
  • Kick the Dog: Her relationship with Korra is the opposite of Korra's relationship with Ghazan.
    • During one of Korra's water-bending lessons, Ming's frustration with Korra's style leads her to butcher an Otter Penguin in front of Korra.
    • During a flashback during Chapter Ten, she was okay with the idea of leaving Korra to freeze in the cold after Zaheer defeated her.
  • Lack of Empathy: She either doesn't understand or doesn't care about the emotional impact that slaughtering an animal in front of a child can have on the child.
  • The Perfectionist: Is this to some degree, according to P'li.
  • Sadistic Teacher: She did not hesitate to psychologically harm Korra by killing Otter penguins.
  • The Sociopath: She has the least morals in the group.
  • You Have Failed Me: After Korra runs away, she 'punishes' a fair number of her fellow Red Lotus for failing to prevent Korra's escape.


    P'Li 

A talented firebender who can cause explosions through sheer force of will.


  • Accidental Murder: Korra ends up killing her by hitting her in the head with a rock. Based on how fast earthbending rocks can go, it is not surprising that it killed her.
  • Apologetic Attacker: To Korra after Zaheer orders her to shoot through Korra in order to kill Unalaq.
  • Boom, Headshot!: How Korra kills her with earth bending.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Like in canon, she was kidnapped by a warlord to become a human weapon and after Zaheer rescued her she discovers that the warlord murdered her family.
  • Death by Adaptation: Type II. In canon, she does not die until after Harmonic Convergence during Book Three. In this story, she dies at the end of the first story arc about a year before Harmonic Convergence.
  • Irony: She along with Ghazan treated Korra the best out the Red Lotus, and she ended up dying after fighting Korra during Chapter Eighteen.
  • Character Death: At Korra's hands.
  • Karmic Death: She attempted to kill Korra with her fire bending that was triggered by the eye on her forehead which left Korra burned and scarred. Korra ends up killing her by throwing a rock in her face.
  • Pet the Dog: Though not quite as much as Ghazan, she treats Korra well. But she is still willing, albeit reluctant, to sacrifice Korra for the Red Lotus' goals.
    • Explained to Korra how to find a source to fuel her fire-bending by telling her of her own Dark and Troubled Past. From what has been shown, P'Li is the only one of Zaheer's Red Lotus group who has revealed her past to Korra.
    • It was P'Li who explained puberty to Korra and helped her adjust to the changes.
  • Shoot the Dog: She nearly kills Korra on Zaheer's orders when she refuses to get out of the way.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: During the Red Lotus attack in Chapter Fifteen, P'Li puts all of her power behind a combustion bolt that obliterates Councilor Chiyo and some of the building, even Ming-Hua thought this to be excessive. Later, she is ordered by Zaheer to shoot through Korra in order to finish off Unalaq, P'Li later remarks that she put all of her power behind the two combustion bolts that she fired at Korra but luckily Korra was able to block them.
  • Villainous BSoD: After attacking Korra on Zaheer's orders. Although she snaps out of it pretty quickly.

    Manu 

A spy for the Red Lotus who disguised himself as an Air Acolyte.


  • Asshole Victim: He is tortured by Mako, but that was after he held Jinora hostage.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He appeared to be a decent person when he was acting as an Air Acolyte, but he proves to be anything but when he reveals his true colors.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Mako subjects him to this.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: It does not take too much effort from Bolin and Mako to subdue him.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Acts calm and polite to Team Avatar and Tenzin while holding a knife to Jinora's throat.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: He is tortured by Mako after holding Jinora hostage and withholding information on what the Red Lotus planned for Korra.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Had he not dropped his cover and outed himself as a Red Lotus agent, Mako and Bolin would never have been able to rescue Korra's parents. See Spanner in the Works and Villain Ball for more detail.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: He proved how dangerous the Red Lotus are and the fact many people who are highly trusted by others in different organizations can be members of the Red Lotus. Mako torturing him also destroys his friendship with Asami, but it leads to Mako and Bolin being able to save Korra's parents and putting a monkey wrench in Zaheer's plans.
  • Spanner in the Works: He proves to be this toward Zaheer's plans. If he did not stupidly reveal himself to be a member of the Red Lotus and maintained his cover, Mako would have lacked a source of information, and Korra's parents would have been successfully captured.
  • Villain Ball: By stupidly revealing his true identity to Tenzin and Korra's friends by taking Jinora hostage, he causes Zaheer's plans to fall apart. Additionally, it causes the others to become more cautious about the possibility of other Red Lotus spies.
  • Would Hurt a Child: He does not hesitate to hold Jinora hostage to prevent Tenzin and Korra's friends from trying to rescue her.

    Shi 

  • Curb-Stomp Battle: On the receiving end from Bolin and Mako.
  • Small Role Big Imapact: Shi is apparently one of the people that learned Korra was in Republic City after Tenzin found out which led to him informing Zaheer.
  • Spanner in the Works: Similar to Manu, he proves to be this toward Zaheer's plans. While Manu revealed himself, he did not have to reveal himself too. He and Manu became living proof that there were plenty of Red Lotus members that could easily have sleeper agents in different groups and organizations.
  • Villain Ball: Similar to Manu, he could have maintained his cover as an Air Acolyte, but he ends up outing himself.

    Avatar Korra 

Korra was kidnapped when she was a child and was technically a member of the Red Lotus before escaping.

See Team Avatar

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