I mean seriously, he learns Airbending how quickly? 3 Weeks? Maybe a bit over a month? Enough to stand up to a Master AND the Avatar on several occasions? I rather doubt it. If the henchmen are more interesting than the boss, thats a clear sign of trouble. Also the last fight felt too much like a repeat of Sozin's Comet.
I actually appreciated how they showed Zaheer's skill. He only preformed well against people who hadn't faced air benders in combat before (as the technique had been functionally dead for a century). Tenzin was able to easily overwhelm him in single combat, and he was only able to match Korra when
she was literally on the verge of death, and earlier when both her arms and legs were restrained.
The whole reason for the Red Lotus' cloak and dagger routine to get at Korra is because they couldn't take her in a fight.
Compared to a 'normal' person, Zaheer was greatly skilled. But when put to the test, his abilities didn't hold a candle to the real masters.
Actually that makes it even worse. It would have been more interesting if Zaheer was the direct descendant of Airbenders. Maybe a small commune survived the War in secret. Because then rather than it being some anarchist who reads books and takes it too literally it would be about different philosophies of the Air Nomads and the new Air Nation. Or if he never became an airbender to begin with, it has been stated that he was dangerous despite not being a Bender at the time so really i dont see what airbending actually added to his character.
However this brings up another flaw in the story. Korra has to be in the Avatar-state so the cycle ends. Why? Vaatu already destroyed the old cycle and Raava once, all of Korra's past incarnations are literally gone. So where did Korra get her power-boost from? She is the first Avatar of the new cycle, all her previous lives, their knowledge and power is gone. During TLA it was stated that the Avatar-state imbues the Avatar with said knowledge and power, something Korra cannot draw from. However given Raava was extracted and destroyed once already, all it would take for a new Avatar to appear is time. Eventually Raava would be reborn in the spirit-world and could bond with another human to create a new Avatar in any event.
Essentially, Zaheer's methods make no sense. The story as it went makes no sense since it directly contradicts itself as well as previously established facts of the world. Its like the writers were high or something. I mean we had better villains in the original Show. Amon was a much more interesting Villian (before the waterbend reveal), even Unalaq to some degree was more interesting even though he was the mustache-twirling evil villian. Zaheer acts like a spoiled over-emotional teenager.
@A-D.:
I thought that was, kind of the point.
I mean, Zaheer is a ZEALOT.
He's not a man on a mission, however misguided, that's been planned like the other two 'big bads' of Korra.
He's a zealot who believes ONLY in freedom though absolute anarchy.
Not once thinking about how people might WANT some kind of order in their lives.
It's the whole 'a war for peace' or what have you.
I really just want the non-benders to have their moment. Asami is brilliant nearly every time she fights (which was only twice this entire season IIRC) and, looking back to Season 1 with the equalists, nonbenders 100% can pose a threat to benders, especially with technology. Maybe in Season 4 they can bring back mustache guy; he's still out there.
Also, what's up with introducing that metalbending captain in the last episode? That seemed extremely pointless. Maybe she'll play a role in S4?
However this brings up another flaw in the story. Korra has to be in the Avatar-state so the cycle ends. Why? Vaatu already destroyed the old cycle and Raava once, all of Korra's past incarnations are literally gone. So where did Korra get her power-boost from? She is the first Avatar of the new cycle, all her previous lives, their knowledge and power is gone. During TLA it was stated that the Avatar-state imbues the Avatar with said knowledge and power, something Korra cannot draw from. However given Raava was extracted and destroyed once already, all it would take for a new Avatar to appear is time. Eventually Raava would be reborn in the spirit-world and could bond with another human to create a new Avatar in any event.
The only times Raava has ever merged with a human were during harmonic convergance. We saw her merge with Wan when fighting Vaatu and it was stated that the merge would kill him if maintained any amount of time. So the only stable form of the avatar state seems to require touching the spirit portals in harmonic convergance. In fact at the end of season two they seemed very eager to get Raava back to the spirit portals before harmonic convergance was over.
Also when Wan was fighting with Vaatu he had no past avatars to draw from, and yet his eyes went glowy and he seemed a lot stronger when merged with Raava. We can gather from that fight at least that the avatar state does more than JUST draw on past lives skills, and also simply grants more powerful bending.
So there is a good chance that breaking the avatar cycle by killing Korra in the avatar state would have stopped there from being an avatar for at least 9,999 years, seeing as harmonic convergance happened like, a month ago.
Otherwise I love to hear other people enjoyed it as much as I did, they really went above and beyond with this episode.
I really liked the ending themes. I loved that the final fight with Zaheer was the air nation steping in as a group to help the Avatar when she needed it, and then the declaration at the end that while the avatar was down the air nation would step in to help keep balance. I think it was a great message that it isn't Korra vs the world, that she has more than just Team Avatar on her side.
I really liked the fighting, between the great way the P'li fight ended, the fact that Mako and Bo Lin won the fight with teamwork at the end (considering their rise to fame in pro bending was their ability to work together) and the epic fight with Korra in chains and her super limited bending I felt really satisfied.
I think Tenzin's arc was pretty good, where we got to see him as a total badass (which was also a great fight) and then in the end moving aside and letting other people help him when he was battered. I saw the season 1 Tenzin who was very stuck in his ways, to season 2 Tenzin who came to terms with who he was, to season 3 Tenzin who was excited about rebuilding his history, saw the ups and downs of it, and now seems like more a member of the new Air nation than its leader... which I think fits very well with what the air nation is. I can't wait to see if season 4 brings more Tenzin, or if he starts to step out of the way to let other people have a turn at their arc.
Also I'll admit I am a sucker for bittersweet endings, but I think they knocked that one out of the park. Korra is such a headstrong and agressive person, so the contrast of seeing her mentally "defeated" was a big emotional kick. I don't think she is paralyzed, she just looks weak, as if she has a lot of recovering to do. And Korra feeling weak or powerless is really the thing that bothers her most, so seeing her in a position of weakness and her seeming to hate herself made the tear moment even more incredible. I think it was Korra really feeling like she had a support network, and how much that meant to her.
Things I didn't like: No Toph!
The fact that the new type of air bending was flight. I was kinda hoping it would be something really creative like sound bending or mirage bending.
We are done with the bad guy again. I think Korra suffers from having to introduce a new villian every season.
You don't want to see characters get kicked around? Would you rather Korra meditate for a few seconds until she gets bestowed energy by the universe because of reasons and Jinora 'Jesus' Ex Machina comes from the sky and reveals hidden weakspots? I think it's become very clear that The Legend of Korra is striving for more nuance and less typical stories that end with simple happy endings. It hasn't always succeeded at the nuance, but it's still a worthy goal, not that the old series didn't have its nuances, but those nuances were all in between the larger story rather than inherently a part of it.
As someone who has had mixed feelings about this show, I am also one of the people who really think this Book (season/series, whatever your chosen vernacular) redeemed the messier aspects. I agree that the fighting overall still hasn't reached the old show's quality (you can only have one Tenzin vs Zaheer fight after all though that fight didn't go far enough necessarily to reach said quality, just an example of being better than usual), they do strawman when taking inspiration a bit, and they still do the bare minimum to carry over plot points from the old show. The confusion around how air bison and dragons are still alive is completely understandable. If I didn't read dedicated series wikis and check out outside sources like creator commentary and stuff, I'd still be wondering myself. Well, I'd be wondering until I reached towards the end of Book's 2 finale and overheard the Fire Nation spirtual lady say how she was raising the descendants of a herd of surviving air bison her predecessors found after the war. Even then, they don't really address it; that's just too much of a side note pretty far in. I'm sure they could have worked it in and better, tighter story elements, at times anyway, if they weren't focusing on bad love triangles and too much pro-bending in the first Book.
I am in complete argreement with you on this. It is a complete disservice to Aang as a character. It is a bit like the episode where Katara and Sokka meet their dad's friend and Aang becomes jealous of the fact that they have other friends, it doesn't make any sense.
We never get confirmation that Aang actually objectively did that. When families are going through crises and things seem a certain way at moments siblings often will exaggerate what they see into worse things than they really are. You don't need to see it (done badly) on some sitcom, many of us can probably testify to seeing this or doing it ourselves in our own families. It is important to keep in mind that after Kya and Bumi said what they said and their personal unresolved sibling problems were addressed we see a picture of them all with Aang and Katara happy. I think that was intentional. When you take that along with the statement by Tenzin's vision of Aang that he is not Aang and shouldn't try to be while also taking into consideration that the siblings admitted to each other and to themselves that Aang would be proud regardless, I'd say he was a decent father. It adds something to his character that he got carried away to not notice his other children suspecting he had biased love, it's a different look at his commitment and completely unintentional on his part hence why I mentioned he probably clearly loved them all. He just didn't get to show it enough. This is all speculation of course.
Also, the episode you mention MorganL4 made fine sense. It had nothing to do with the fact they had other friends as that would not be the last time Aang encountered people Katara and Sokka knew or were connected to in some way. It had to do with him being left out of the loop. When he heard how they might get intel on their dad's whereabouts that feeling of being left out of the loop turned into fear about what they might prioritize. It was an in the moment, scared feeling. You're kind of ignoring that was in that show's Book 1 when Aang was certainly mature and wise, but still far from the Aang we see at the finale. Let's not forget that, at the end of episode 2, when they're on Appa riding off into the sky into a foreboding but hopeful sunset Aang talks about doing crazy things and acts a little aloof towards Katara and Sokka. He tries to get back at Katara at Kyoshi Island by being a little vain about his Avatar status there, basking in his fangirls, and scaring her with Unagi riding stunts. These things creeped into his mind even among all his more positive moments. He wasn't perfect.
MorganL4 said:
Now, as far as the actual finale goes, I thought it was pretty good, not as impressive as TLA series finale, but a series finale vs a season finale are two different things. The other thing that confuses me is WHEN did you need to be an air bending master to have arrows? SERIOUSLY, in Aang's flashbacks back in TLA all the airbending monk trainees had arrows. I did like that Ginora FINALLY shaved her head though. It has been bugging me for three seasons that she wasn't especially when Milo already was.
I find it interesting you find faults with Korra in relation to the old show and forget a plot point that was established very early on in the old show. I don't mean that offensively, it's just kind of funny. There was an episode that flashbacked to Aang's time in training when he did not have arrows. Whenever he was with the other airbending children not a single one of them had tattoos, it just sounds like you're not remembering right. Only the old monk masters had tattoos.
Fun fact not DIRECTLY (it's hinted at) mentioned in TLA, but stated directly in commentary and trivia things: What got him his tattoos was inventing the air scooter as he hadn't mastered the final 36th tier of airbending.
It's also worth mentioning that in the episode the image is from that let us see a female master air bender she only shaved enough hair to clearly see the tattoo on the forehead. Outside clarification tells us that female air benders don't have to go full shaved. The ceremony we saw probably makes it necessary though. Jinora will probably grow it out again and do the shaved hair at the forehead thing.
inu-kun said:
Still haven't watch the final 2 episodes, but already I didn't like the villains, there's a limit to hypocracy I can handle, they criticize world leaders for acts like wiping out the airbenders and the first thing they do after (maybe) murdering the earth queen is wipeout the airbenders and possibly kill the only person who knows most lost air bender techniques.
Also their goal is: Kill world leaders->???->Utopia! (Not to mention the difference between earth kingdom monarchy and a president chosen by democracy)
They have the worst aspects of straw anarchists, the only good thing that they're not complete villain sue.
They weren't being hypocritical. Zaheer admires the culture of the ancestral air nomads, not some new airbenders, and he criticized the Earth Queen for an act against her people because of something special about them she could use to her own advantage. If the eradication of the new 'Air Nation' would help his goal then he'd do it; he's about the big picture and it's not like he didn't know a lot about the culture and couldn't learn more whether new airbenders were alive or not, or heck even if a born airbender were alive or not. There's clearly surviving history. His constant hamming of Guru Laghima got a little annoying actually.
bliebblob said:
Now if only they'd have gotten confirmation for four seasons from the start, instead of this maybe-maybe game for three seasons. So much awkward shoehorning of plot thread resolutions could've been avoided, as well as these graceless introductions of next season's takeoff point.
Bryke know how to make a good story. I'm really really glad to hear that they have actually remembered this fact. Maybe now I can watch it without so much trepidation that everything's going to go to hell in the finale, lol.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, but while Nick has been stupid I don't think that explains everything. Bryke already stated how they had ideas extending past Book 1. That means they must have had at least an early blueprint for how the future story would play out even if there was no greenlight for 3 more Books yet. They even stated how they think they preferred the miniseries format initially, thinking it was leading to a tighter story, even if their fans disagree on whether that actually translated effectively.
I'm not sure they're all around great at storytelling. They're great at aspects I'm sure, we see it in certain epsiodes under their direct writing supervision. However, the only FAN FAVORITE episodes under their DIRECT writing supervision were "The Blue Spirit" and "The Blind Bandit". "Bitter Work". Not them. "Zuko Alone". Nope. "The Storm". Nah. They didn't even write "Tales of Ba Sing Se". I think it's very possible it took intervention to get the best parts into the old show.
I respect the creators for bringing the world of Avatar to fruition. That doesn't change the fact that they're like the George Lucas of animation. Unlike George, they still have their moments when given a high level of control, but they are farther and fewer in between than when they are restricted
I only have one major gripe about the episodes and that's
Zaheer's ability to fly.
"I released all my earthly ties, now let's go finish a coup that effects matters solely tied to the earth's geo-political climate since my girlfriend is dead."
NO ZAHEER, THAT'S VERY CLEARLY AN EARTHLY TIE, WANTING TO SET A GLOBAL STATE OF ANARCHY IS MOST DEFINITELY AN EARTHLY TIE.
Though I'm fine with it anyway. Philosophy's very lose with definitions and things. Plus, he basically got the same power as the Air Bison, and they seemed pretty attached to people/their own kind, yet they can fly. So if all you have left is your lust for anarchy, maybe that makes you light enough to fly? :/
Going with Imp Emissary on this one. Previous Avatars managed mastery of the Avatar State despite their earthly attachments. Kuruk had a fiance, Roku had a wife, Aang had a wife. There's a deeper aspect to that particular part of the philosophy; I don't think it's so superficial as to literally not have attachments as that would make it Star Wars prequel level of nonsense.
A-D. said:
I hated the villains in this season. Sure you could argue Season 2's Villian was very obvious, given the only thing he didnt do was say "Im the Villian" directly, but even he had more to him than Zaheer. U
You can't honestly say Unalaq had more depth to him than Zaheer? He made no sense. He's all about how dark spirits are just unbalanced, making it sound like he thinks the natural state of something is either neutral or good with evil being like an infection in the latter case. Then, he goes all 'I need to be a Dark Avatar because 10,000 years of goodness must balance out with 10,000 years of darkness' or something. He never says that, but that's one way you could piece together his nonsense. Finding out he was part of the Red Lotus just makes it more confusing. The fact Zaheer said what Unalaq did was never part of the plan just ousts him out as even more of a crazy person, who knows what the heck he wanted. I mean, we know what he wanted, but the show never went into enough depth to make it believable or understandable if it ever was to begin with.
Zaheer did have a plan. He wanted to kill world leaders, eliminate anything that let a system still feel like it was in place among populaces. We didn't need much clarification. In the end, he was part of a cult, I'd argue. When confronted by people about what his actions would cause, he said enough to make me think he'd do more. It's not that he didn't just feel so telegraphed like Unalaq, but rather that we knew enough to understand. He doesn't reach Amon in terms of complexity probably, but I don't think he's worse than Unalaq just because he's a little strawmanned, which I do agree, he is. In attempts at being nuanced Korra certainly has strawmanned.
I would like to point out that Tenzin was clearly gaining the upper hand against Zaheer before P'Li, Ghazan, and Ming Hua stepped in. He was knocking Zaheer down and keeping him off balance, gaining the upper hand, keeping up, etc. He lasted longer than anyone else who recently got airbending would, but he was outclassed all the same. We can also see how he struggles against a chained up Korra in a handicapped position twice although in the latter she was Avatar State pounding briefly to balance out the handicap of poison I suppose. He didn't just curbstomp her even taking into account the backup metalbenders and her father.
On a final, note to everyone who keeps asking why Mako didn't lightning bend Ming Hua through her water attacks sooner, I'm not sure he could. She just has the water arms. Being in a cave like place of sorts surrounded by water, you have an easy target. She's right in the water. When she's on land and not submerged or at least touching a pool of water, it's harder to pin her down and hope she doesn't see it coming a mile away and disconnect from her tiny source of water. Besides, in his previous fight he was just trying to keep her off Korra's tail. The finale had to be all or nothing with the position everyone was in.
I was amazed by the improved fights through the last 3 episodes this season. Hugely improved from last seasons spirit godzilla fight ending. The only thing that it has me a little worried about is that the villains may go the way of DBZ villains and just keep getting crazier abilities compared to the rest of the world because they need to one up the previous set.
Also, I really can't make up my mind about hating the Red Lotus' motivations to make an utopic anarchy. If it was just the prisoners wanting anarchy after being locked up for 13 years then I could just say well they just don't give a fuck. But for some reason them having a few other cronies show up and implying a larger conspiracy really annoys me because it really won't benefit anyone who isn't extremely strong.
Also, I didn't bat an eye when the earth queen got suffocated out, but that chest piece turning into an exploding helmet actually had me go "Oh fuck! This was made by Nickelodeon?!"
However this brings up another flaw in the story. Korra has to be in the Avatar-state so the cycle ends. Why? Vaatu already destroyed the old cycle and Raava once, all of Korra's past incarnations are literally gone. So where did Korra get her power-boost from? She is the first Avatar of the new cycle, all her previous lives, their knowledge and power is gone. During TLA it was stated that the Avatar-state imbues the Avatar with said knowledge and power, something Korra cannot draw from. However given Raava was extracted and destroyed once already, all it would take for a new Avatar to appear is time. Eventually Raava would be reborn in the spirit-world and could bond with another human to create a new Avatar in any event.
The only times Raava has ever merged with a human were during harmonic convergance. We saw her merge with Wan when fighting Vaatu and it was stated that the merge would kill him if maintained any amount of time. So the only stable form of the avatar state seems to require touching the spirit portals in harmonic convergance. In fact at the end of season two they seemed very eager to get Raava back to the spirit portals before harmonic convergance was over.
Also when Wan was fighting with Vaatu he had no past avatars to draw from, and yet his eyes went glowy and he seemed a lot stronger when merged with Raava. We can gather from that fight at least that the avatar state does more than JUST draw on past lives skills, and also simply grants more powerful bending.
So there is a good chance that breaking the avatar cycle by killing Korra in the avatar state would have stopped there from being an avatar for at least 9,999 years, seeing as harmonic convergance happened like, a month ago.
Otherwise I love to hear other people enjoyed it as much as I did, they really went above and beyond with this episode.
I really liked the ending themes. I loved that the final fight with Zaheer was the air nation steping in as a group to help the Avatar when she needed it, and then the declaration at the end that while the avatar was down the air nation would step in to help keep balance. I think it was a great message that it isn't Korra vs the world, that she has more than just Team Avatar on her side.
I really liked the fighting, between the great way the P'li fight ended, the fact that Mako and Bo Lin won the fight with teamwork at the end (considering their rise to fame in pro bending was their ability to work together) and the epic fight with Korra in chains and her super limited bending I felt really satisfied.
I think Tenzin's arc was pretty good, where we got to see him as a total badass (which was also a great fight) and then in the end moving aside and letting other people help him when he was battered. I saw the season 1 Tenzin who was very stuck in his ways, to season 2 Tenzin who came to terms with who he was, to season 3 Tenzin who was excited about rebuilding his history, saw the ups and downs of it, and now seems like more a member of the new Air nation than its leader... which I think fits very well with what the air nation is. I can't wait to see if season 4 brings more Tenzin, or if he starts to step out of the way to let other people have a turn at their arc.
Also I'll admit I am a sucker for bittersweet endings, but I think they knocked that one out of the park. Korra is such a headstrong and agressive person, so the contrast of seeing her mentally "defeated" was a big emotional kick. I don't think she is paralyzed, she just looks weak, as if she has a lot of recovering to do. And Korra feeling weak or powerless is really the thing that bothers her most, so seeing her in a position of weakness and her seeming to hate herself made the tear moment even more incredible. I think it was Korra really feeling like she had a support network, and how much that meant to her.
Things I didn't like: No Toph!
The fact that the new type of air bending was flight. I was kinda hoping it would be something really creative like sound bending or mirage bending.
We are done with the bad guy again. I think Korra suffers from having to introduce a new villian every season.
I think the Red Lotus (as a whole) has been established as the main bad group as of this season and has retroactively place them as "behind-the-scene" bad guys. I think the 4th season, we will have the founders of the Red Lotus as the main bad guys and find out that all previous villains have been leading up to a certain point
I really enjoyed the finale. It was a blast. Heck, Season 3 in general was pretty neat and better paced than Season 2. Also
The Korrasami fan in me freaked out at that one point.
Also, I think I have an idea of how the 4th season is going to go:
- It will involve the Fire Nation (The seasons have been following the avatar cycle, so that would make sense)
- It will involve growth and recovery (Recovery of Korra's physical wellbeing, Recovery of the Harmonic Convergence, etc.
I was amazed by the improved fights through the last 3 episodes this season. Hugely improved from last seasons spirit godzilla fight ending. The only thing that it has me a little worried about is that the villains may go the way of DBZ villains and just keep getting crazier abilities compared to the rest of the world because they need to one up the previous set.
Also, I really can't make up my mind about hating the Red Lotus' motivations to make an utopic anarchy. If it was just the prisoners wanting anarchy after being locked up for 13 years then I could just say well they just don't give a fuck. But for some reason them having a few other cronies show up and implying a larger conspiracy really annoys me because it really won't benefit anyone who isn't extremely strong.
Also, I didn't bat an eye when the earth queen got suffocated out, but that chest piece turning into an exploding helmet actually had me go "Oh fuck! This was made by Nickelodeon?!"
Yeah, as disturbing as the Earth Queen's death was, Pi'lo's death was extremely gruesome. I mean, having your head explode? That's not a pretty way to go.
The season finale really threw me for a loop. Great intensity, really suspenseful at times and the combat was great.
I don't really have a problem with Zaheer learning something that had basically fallen into legend for normal airbenders. He studied airbender teachings and legend, possibly more than actual airbenders did, he's seen meditating at various points in the series (something that holds a special place in airbender society I believe). I can't say I was expecting that exact thing from him but I'm not going to hate the writers for doing it.
They really had it in for Korra this season though, especially the last 2 episodes. Her face after getting poisoned and hallucinating was actually horrifying and the broken and soulless look on her face in the ending scenes...geeze.
The worst part of it all though is; every major villain in Legend of Korra has basically said the same thing, the world doesn't need an Avatar anymore and what is basically the last scene of this season? Tenzin telling Korra that she doesn't need to worry about being the Avatar right now and to focus on getting better. To a sane mind that's just simply reassurance, but to Korra's mind, which is most likely under the effects of erethism, he's basically saying exactly what the other villains were, she's not needed anymore. Gives a whole new meaning to that tear in the last scene. One of the people she really cares for, not some villain out to get her, but one of her own masters, has just said the exact same thing.
Tenzin telling Korra that she doesn't need to worry about being the Avatar right now and to focus on getting better. To a sane mind that's just simply reassurance, but to Korra's mind, which is most likely under the effects of erethism, he's basically saying exactly what the other villains were, she's not needed anymore. Gives a whole new meaning to that tear in the last scene. One of the people she really cares for, not some villain out to get her, but one of her own masters, has just said the exact same thing.
I really like this take on the scene. Completely different than how I interperted it but great to think about. I don't think they'll go that way, but making Korra the villian of season 4 would be a pretty epic plot twist.
Edit: After the penultimate episode they are Villain sue's, especailly Zaheer, remember the "Master an element takes decades" from the old series? Apperantly that not applies to him, since he masters air bending in 3 weeks.
And let's not forget that Aang also managed to master 3 elements over the course of less than a year. And Korra had Water, Earth, and Firebending mastered at age 17. If someone is truly talented or works extremely hard, then mastering the elements appears remarkably simple.
No, not really, the only reason Aang and korra managed to study so fast was because they were the avatar, with Aang being sub-par in most elements and Korra having shitty spiritual connection.
Zaheer might have known some airbending techniques, but it's ridiculous that he can stand toe to toe with Korra or Tenzin.
How about thinking about it like this, you need to understand the ideas and philosophies behind how a certain style of bending works to master it?
Now, with that suggestions I'm going to talk about Toph, who became a master earthbender at the age of 12 and created MetalBending at that same age. She encountered the badgermoles at age 6 which means she became a master in 6 years. Why? Because she learned the core parts of earthbending from some of the original earthbenders, the ones who truly understood the core ideas of earthbending. Having a good understanding of the core ideas of a bending style can make learning that bending easier. Yes, Zaheer wasn't a bender for very long, but he apparently studied the teachings of the air nation as if he were one one of the older monks, possibly more, that's going to give him a leg up on the whole learning thing. Basically, he had the mind of an airbender, even when he wasn't a bender. (This is also slightly backed up by Toph's lessons to Aang where constantly tells him he needs to be solid, mentally and physically (It's been a long time since I've watched the original series so I'm definitely paraphrasing but I believe that was the gist of it).
As for fighting toe-to-toe with Tenzin and Korra, he never really does. When fighting Tenzin he was getting his ass handed to him before the other three in his group joined in. As for Korra, during the last two episodes when they fought she 1)had both her hands and legs chained and 2) was suffering from horrible poisoning and some psychological damage. Additionally, the fact that Zaheer was much more maneuverable during the second fight also tilted the scales slightly.
Just some food for thought on the subject, not saying this is correct but it's what I believe makes the most sense.
The season finale really threw me for a loop. Great intensity, really suspenseful at times and the combat was great.
I don't really have a problem with Zaheer learning something that had basically fallen into legend for normal airbenders. He studied airbender teachings and legend, possibly more than actual airbenders did, he's seen meditating at various points in the series (something that holds a special place in airbender society I believe). I can't say I was expecting that exact thing from him but I'm not going to hate the writers for doing it.
They really had it in for Korra this season though, especially the last 2 episodes. Her face after getting poisoned an hallucinating was actual horrifying.
The worst part of it all though is; every major villain in Legend of Korra has basically said the same thing, the world doesn't need an Avatar anymore and what is basically the last scene of this season? Tenzin telling Korra that she doesn't need to worry about being the Avatar right now and to focus on getting better. To a sane mind that's just simply reassurance, but to Korra's mind, which is most likely under the effects of erethism, he's basically saying exactly what the other villains were, she's not needed anymore.
Gives a whole new meaning to that tear in the last scene. One of the people she really cares for, not some villain out to get her, but one of her own masters, has just said the exact same thing.
Eh, it's a bit much to call it the "exact same thing", but I see where you're coming from.
Even if Korra didn't take it like that, she's most definitely not having a good time right then.
For someone like her who has been all "I'm the Avatar! You gotta deal with it!" since she was a little girl, it's probably very hard to be so helpless. Add to that that she may still be suffering from the mercury and you got someone who is in a very fragile state of being.
It doesn't seem like getting better will be easy. IF it can be done at all.
jamail77 said:
You can't honestly say Unalaq had more depth to him than Zaheer? He made no sense. He's all about how dark spirits are just unbalanced, making it sound like he thinks the natural state of something is either neutral or good with evil being like an infection in the latter case. Then, he goes all 'I need to be a Dark Avatar because 10,000 years of goodness must balance out with 10,000 years of darkness' or something. He never says that, but that's one way you could piece together his nonsense. Finding out he was part of the Red Lotus just makes it more confusing. The fact Zaheer said what Unalaq did was never part of the plan just ousts him out as even more of a crazy person, who knows what the heck he wanted. I mean, we know what he wanted, but the show never went into enough depth to make it believable or understandable if it ever was to begin with.
Zaheer did have a plan. He wanted to kill world leaders, eliminate anything that let a system still feel like it was in place among populaces. We didn't need much clarification. In the end, he was part of a cult, I'd argue. When confronted by people about what his actions would cause, he said enough to make me think he'd do more. It's not that he didn't just feel so telegraphed like Unalaq, but rather that we knew enough to understand. He doesn't reach Amon in terms of complexity probably, but I don't think he's worse than Unalaq just because he's a little strawmanned, which I do agree, he is. In attempts at being nuanced Korra certainly has strawmanned.
I would like to point out that Tenzin was clearly gaining the upper hand against Zaheer before P'Li, Ghazan, and Ming Hua stepped in. He was knocking Zaheer down and keeping him off balance, gaining the upper hand, keeping up, etc. He lasted longer than anyone else who recently got airbending would, but he was outclassed all the same. We can also see how he struggles against a chained up Korra in a handicapped position twice although in the latter she was Avatar State pounding briefly to balance out the handicap of poison I suppose. He didn't just curbstomp her even taking into account the backup metalbenders and her father.
The impression I got was that Unalaq just wanted power. All the other stuff just sounded like his rationalization for why he should have it. Because what was he really getting out of the whole deal with Vaatu otherwise?
In the end he was so bland that they had him pretty much completely replaced with Vaatu.
Best thing they did with him in all of book two. ;p
I liked his kids though.
Also, I liked how they had Zaheer win the fights he won. He and his friends were powerful, sure, but they won by staking the odds in their favor, as people have mentioned.
One thing I'm bummed about is we never really found out why the others were so dedicated to Zaheer's goal. We know his girlfriend was dedicated out of love and because he saved her from the worst "the system" had to offer....(To be HIS weapon to kill the system, but that's another argument).
Why did Gazan and Ming-Wua fight for him?
:/ Guess we'll never know now that they're both most likely dead.
I was very impressed by the second half of this seasons great fight scenes tension and really willing to ramp up the stakes. As far as Zaheer learning to fly people do realize that letting go of his earthly attachments was watching the love of his life blow her own head off. Kinda a life changing experience, that someone who studies philosophy that Zaheer does would respond to by going straight to the nothing matters but ideals place.
I am all for the characters of a show getting the shit kicked out of them every now and then. It would be no fun to see the good guys win every single time. Bad guys are no fun if they are not able to actually take on the good guys. But when the good guys are getting their arse handed to them every single episode, that is as boring to me as them winning every time.
I wasn't a fan of Zaheer's sudden ability to fly, especially for a guy who has been airbending for 3 weeks at most, whereas airbending master such as Tenzin couldn't.
Aang was told to give up his attachments to the world to open all his chakras to master the Avatar state. Including his love for Katara.
With his love dead, Zaheer was finally able to sever his connection to the world (he even states later). Thus, he could "become the wind."
This season on the whole has been a VAST improvement over the last two. I loved how they actually explored the consequences of what happened in season 2, rather than just ignore any consequences, like season 2 did to the entire equalist movement. The villains actually had dimension to them (barring the Earth Queen), and that finally, well... I... @#%^ that hit hard.
Yeah, as disturbing as the Earth Queen's death was, Pi'lo's death was extremely gruesome. I mean, having your head explode? That's not a pretty way to go.
"And if you know about the physics of explosions, it gets worse. The metal shell over her head would focus the force of the blast into a tiny area, while the opening around her neck would direct the force down like a shaped charge. It's very likely that her own skull fragments ripped the rest of her body apart. Brr."
You may wanna look again. None of the children had arrow tattoos. Only the adults, who had spent their entire lives airbending so naturally would have mastered it, had arrow tattoos.
That's Roku with Gyatso, too.
It was even stated in the episodes of TLA that aired with factoids that only Airbending masters had arrow tattoos. Aang was the youngest person to ever receive his tattoos, though Jinora maybe the youngest, now. It's also been stated that Aang earned his tattoos by mastering 35 of the 36 tiers of airbending and inventing a new airbending technique, the Air Scooter. He was as good an airbender as children twice his age at the age of six, too.
The tattoos were always a symbol of airbending mastery just not thrown in your face, probably because Aang was a bit modest. Half the reason Aang didn't destroy every person he encountered was that he didn't want to hurt people and held back and tried to avoid fighting and harming others.
I also wonder if the whole "he's the Avatar and we need him to BE the Avatar right now because we have reason to believe the fire nation is coming for us" also influenced the choice to give Aang the tattoos.
I guess, i just assumed that it was just a nondescript water based poison being waterbent into korra so when it turned out to be metal based it kinda threw me, oh well il get over it thanks to those last two episode being bloody brilliant
xaszatm said:
I think the Red Lotus (as a whole) has been established as the main bad group as of this season and has retroactively place them as "behind-the-scene" bad guys. I think the 4th season, we will have the founders of the Red Lotus as the main bad guys and find out that all previous villains have been leading up to a certain point
I agree Amon could have easily been part of the red lotus or a splinter faction as his goal was to bring balance to the world, just by getting rid of bending, Zaheer wanted to bring about what he thought was balance by destroying any kind of structure the world had and Unalaq has already been mentioned as a member of the red lotus or at least Zaheers version of the red lotus before he betrayed them. The Red Lotus could have multiple agents each trying to bring about different non avatar based balance therefore if one plan fails there are still more underway.
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