I had a huge problem with this episode, which could have been titled "Everyone is really stupid (except Varrick)"
First, trauma or no trauma, a fighter as skilled as Korra doesn't forget the most basic shit about how to fight. Like, hey my opponent is literally WEARING her ammunition, maybe I should do something about that instead of just letting her toss me around with it. Second, Suyin KNOWS kuvira, and her family is everything to her so the idea that she'd be naive enough to a) think she could catch her alone and pull of an assassination and b) ALSO risk the lives of her two youngest kids felt pretty out of character. And then there's Kuvira. We've seen her be ruthless, pragmatic, deceitful, singlemindedly driven toward her goals and willing to do anything to further them, without a second thought. This is NOT a person who would risk everything on a one on one duel. At the outset, she had nothing to gain by goading Korra into that fight. Unless she knew 100% that she couldn't lose - which, evidenced by how onesided it got the moment Korra step into the Avatar state, she clearly didn't - I cannot believe someone so cunning and pragmatic would do something so needlessly risky over...what, impressing the troops? Maybe if the moment Korra hesitated some ace up her sleeve got employed, taking Korra out in an underhanded way and showing once again that Kuvira cannot be trusted at all, I'd have bought it. As it stands, however, it's completely out of character and nearly killed the episode for me. If it weren't for the absolute awesomeness of Varrick and Bolin, I'd have seriously questioned whether or not I should continue with the season. (the subsequent episode made that decision a lot easier too.)