Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and this week Legend Of Korra did a big hat tip to a very
specific last airbender episode and made a huge reveal that I think made everyone fall
out of their chairs at new york comic con.
The Korra panel was yesterday and I posted the whole video so I’ll add a link to that
in the description.
I’ll explain all the important stuff Bryke said after my review.
Careful for spoilers from the episode if you haven’t seen it.
I’ll wait just a sec....okay, here we go.
Top 5 Moments,
Number 5 - Korra Alone
The title of the episode is homage to the last airbender episode Zuko alone.
That was book 2 episode 7.
Both of these episode are about not being able to run away from your identity.
In the last airbender episode Zuko decides that he’s better off on his own, leaves
Iroh and tries to pretend like he’s not a prince of the fire nation.
Eventually something happens and he realizes he can’t run from who he is.
It’s the exact same thing for Korra.
She can’t run from her identity as the avatar.
She keeps hallucinating herself in the avatar state.
The vision literally chains itself to her.
I did love that they explained the fight scene we saw at the end of episode 1.
She went into the fight feeling like she was facing herself.
She wasn’t part of some underground MMA ring.
I do wonder if she would have stayed there had she won the fight.
That’s not really the point of the exercise though.
Her true identity will always win out.
And for those wondering about Korra reconnecting with her past lives.
The title of this episode says it all.
Mike and Bryan really wanted Korra to be on her own.
She can’t turn inward for guidance or quick answers anymore.
That doesn’t mean she won’t ever be able to reconnect with them but at least for now.
She’s completely on her own.
Number 4 - The Flashback
We finally saw where that teaser clip came from, right after the book 3 finale.
And we got an awesome Katara scene.
I love that Katara is still such an important and relevant figure in the Water Tribe.
She’s still like the best physical and spiritual doctor ever.
So of course Korra is going to go to her for healing.
The big twist right now is that Bryke always differentiated Korra from Aang in that Korra
was the gung ho Avatar.
Aang ran from it at first, it took him the entire last airbender series to come to terms
with being Avatar.
Korra’s first official line was “I’m the Avatar, you gotta deal with it”.
She always wanted to be the Avatar.
Until now.
Based on Katara’s explanation, it seems like Korra is suffering PTSD.
She can fix the physical trauma to her body, but she won’t be able to consciously enter
the avatar state until she fixes her emotional trauma.
For those asking, yes, I do think if she were in another life-threatening situation, her
body would automatically enter the avatar state.
Like when Zaheer was poisoning her.
Right now, that’s the only way for her to enter the avatar state.
I’m curious to see how many more episodes go by before she fixes herself.
Number 3 - Korra does Star Wars
Bryke are huge Star Wars fans, so if you got an empire strikes back vibe from part of the
episode, it was intentional.
During the New York Comic Con panel, when they were explaining Kuvira’s army, they
said part of the designs were based on Stormtroopers and GI Joe’s from the 1980s cartoon.
Mike and Bryan grew up in the 80s, so they, just like every other person, were influenced
by those.
The Empire Strikes back thing I’m talking about is Korra marching through the snow to
the Spirit Portal to look for guidance.
It reminded me of Luke Skywalker on Hoth getting the vision of Obi-Wan Kenobi telling him to
go to the swamps of Dagobah to learn from a wise Master of the force.
So eventually Korra follows one of the spirits to the earth kingdom swamps to find Toph,
but she doesn’t realize it till it hits her right
in the face.
Number 2 - Korra’s Search For Raava
The massive road trip she went on was a lot of fun because we finally got to see the fire
nation, but she visits all of the different bending territories.
She even runs into the fish vendor from last airbender with the portrait of Aang.
I love that Mike and Bryan leave Aang unchanged.
Like Aang still had that silly sense of humor even after he and Katara started their family.
The Aang flashbacks in book 1 made him seem kind of serious even though Toph still called
him twinkle toes.
and my number 1 moment, of course - Melon Lord is back
Everyone let me know when they figured out the “who” part.
Because of all the empire strikes back stuff I was thinking about, I kept thinking Toph
might be in the swamp, so when the spirit said it brought Korra there to find a “who”
not a “What” I was like, yep.
Toph.
The voice actress playing her was Philece Sampler for anyone wondering who it was.
It continues the tradition of them using different voice actors to do older versions of the last
airbender people.
The real question now is what has toph been doing in the swamp all this time and what
is she going to do with Korra to help her re-connect with Raava?
Toph is a funny character, but if you remember, until she met Aang and Team Avatar.
She lived a very solitary life.
She spent most of her time on her own learning from the Badger Moles and prize fighting.
All hail Melon Lord.
Who else is hoping we get to see her do some epic bending.
Theoretically if the star wars influence holds strong, Toph would be just as powerful in
her old age as Yoda was in his.
So maybe we’ll get to see her smash a bunch some of the metal bender’s mechs.
This is really a story about Korra, so all of the attention will be on her and the younger
characters.
But I really hope we get some epic bending from the old team avatar.
Let me know what your favorite moment was and how do you think that Toph is going to
help Korra?
Overall I gave the episode an A for being able to go in a vastly different direction
in the current narrative and tell this side story with just Korra and pay homage to so
many big last airbender things.
Mike and Bryan are really good about trying new things with the Korra characters but they
are always happy to do a little fanservice to their own beloved characters whenever appropriate.
They have said during interviews that they love bringing last airbender characters back,
but because episodes are only about 22 minutes each, they just don’t have time for everything.
If Korra were an hour long show, or if they got like double the number of episodes, then
you’d probably see a lot more episodes like this, where it follows a single character
for an extended period of time.
So I will be doing a Q&A for this tomorrow, be sure to subscribe to get it and
Just to explain what they said during the New York Comic Con panel,
Kuvira is the confirmed big villain of the season.
They spent a lot of time talking about their concept of the character and the inspiration
for the new metal bending army.
It’s all in the Comic Con video I posted.
You can click here to see it all and click here for my Episode 1 video.
Thanks for watching, now let’s all high five and rewatch the episode.