Can we talk about how amazing the action is in this show? One of the hallmarks of both Korra and Airbender has been the strength of the action sequences. Airbender began the tradition by rooting the movements of the different bending styles in different real world martial arts styles. Korra has pushed this forward by imagining the different ways that people would expand on the existing styles. “In Harm’s Way” is a great showcase for the fluid animation and direction and bring the inventive action to life. The opening and closing breakout sequences are both fantastic. The assault on P’Lii’s prison by Zaheer and his cohorts demonstrates how much a threat his whole team is by having them fight their way past Zuko, Tonraq, Desna, and Eska without too much trouble. Once P’Lii joins the fight even a freakin’ dragon isn’t enough to take them out.
The other great thing about the bending action in the show is it can function as an extension if character’s personalities and relationships. When Maki and Bolin are confronted by the Dai Li they spring into action and it’s obvious that they are used to working as a team. Their history as brothers and fighting together as pro-benders shows in the way they move and attack together. The Dai Li are earthbenders just like Bolin but their style is much more militaristic. In fact at the end of the episode when the Earth Queen is standing at the top of her gates the Dai Li agents surrounding her are basically archers and there’s no creativity from any of them in trying to capture Korra and the rest of the team. In “The Metal Clan” we get an awesome battle between Zaheer and Kya. I wanted to highlight the difference in airbending as we saw Aang do it in the original series and the way Zaheer bends. Aang was such usually against confrontation and in fact a large part of his growth as a character was learning that sometimes conflict had to be met head on. This was something about Aang that was always present in his airbending, especially at the start of the series. He would move around constantly and would often dodge and redirect attacks rather than attack directly. Zaheer, and actually even Korra, use their airbending much more offensively. It’s not a big thing but it’s small details like that that make this show so rich and take it beyond a simple animated adventure aimed at kids.
Speaking of adventure, “In Harm’s Way” wraps up the visit to Ba Sing Se nicely and moves the show along to it’s next arc. With Team Avatar rescuing the imprisoned airbenders Tenzin breaks off from the main group and heads to the northern air temple. The moment when the new airbenders all decide to join the air nomads is a victory for Tenzin after the frustration of earlier episodes. Tenzin and Korra share a nice moment where it’s clear that though he may still give her advice, his time as her teacher is over. Arriving in the same episode to take Tenzin’s place as resident “Adult” of Team Avatar is Lin Beifong and she’s a fantastic addition to the core of the show. Beifong is a fan favorite because she’s just so cool and her connection to Toph, who was pretty popular herself. Last season we dealt with Aang’s relationship with his children, particularly Tenzin, and it seems like we’re on track to learn a bit more about Lin’s background and her family.
With a title like “The Metal Clan” it was clear episode five would deal at least tangentially with Toph and her legacy, but who knew it would get so emotional? Lin has never been the most affectionate character but the coldness she displays toward her half-sister early in the episode was genuinely surprising. Suyin seems nice enough, especially with Anne Heche providing her voice. After following Suyin around her impressive and seemingly perfect city of Zaofu , it’s hard to blame Korra for essentially taking Suyin’s side in the tension between the two sisters. On the heels of dealing with Ba Sing Se and Earth Queen Hou-Ting, Zaofu and Suyin are breath of fresh air. The difference can been seen as soon as Zaofu shows up on screen as the airships head toward the gleaming landscapes of the metal city. On first glance it looked like some alien city on a distant planet that had been trasnsplanted to Korra from a sci-fi novel. Suyin’s welcoming demeanor and the VIP style treatment Team Avatar receives is more than enough to endear her to Korra.
On the other hand, there must be something bigger behind Lin’s anger than a simple sibling rivalry. There are small hints that Zaofu may not be the utopia it seems to be. My favorite of those clues? The reappearance of everybody’s favorite war profiteer, Varrick! Until he suddenly popped back into the show I had completely forgotten that Varrick escaped from prison at the end of season 2. Suyin dismisses his questionable activities a little too quickly for taste and her lie-detecting advisor also worries me a little but for now it seems like most things in Zaofu are on the up and up. The team will obviously be spending some time there Korra instructs Suyin’s daughter Opal on the art of airbending. This will hopefully lead to more exploration of the Beifong family and hopefully some small redemption for Lin after being such horrible person the entire episode. The final scene of the episode broke my heart because it’s clear that although Lin is a good person, her anger toward her sister is strong enough to make lash out to Opal when all her niece is trying to do is get to know her.
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Notes from the Team Avatar travelogue:
- Episode five may have been a bit heavy but at least episode four had a healthy dose of humor courtesy of Bolin. His winded summary of his and Mako’s adventure was really funny.
- Varrick also provides some levity in his reintroduction: “I mean, what are any of us doing? Food for thought.”
- Korra bringing the love in these episodes with some cute Kai and Jinora moments and hilarity via Bolin trying to act cool around Opal. Even the bad guys enjoy some romance with Zaheer and P’Lii clearly happy to be reunited, although Ghazan is not a fan of PDA.
- By the way, I don’t think Mako is qualified to give dating advice given his track record…
- How do you guys like Zaheer’s haircut? It was a pretty successful disguise until he decided to creep around air temple island and be creepy to Ikki.
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