Well this episode of The Legend of Korra was a lovely treat, and not just because we saw you-know-who. You might think it strange to call an episode that focuses entirely on Korra’s painful physical rehabilitation and distressingly empathizable post-traumatic stress disorder a “treat,” but “Korra Alone” really was.
What I didn’t want was a whining, emo, “feels” episode. I’ve sort of had my fill of them for a bit, not that they don’t have their due time. I was hoping for, at best, a recovering montage. What I got was something like I was talking about when I discussed Kuvira last week: neither one option nor the other, but a new, third path. We got Korra on her own self-motivated Hero’s Quest. She’s neither sulking nor recuperating: she’s proactive.
The first thing I wrote down was “broken mirror (punched?)” and sure enough, the episode wrapped all the way around itself to come back up to that moment, even though it doesn’t answer my question. It’s a tidy little piece of non-linear storytelling, and it’s great to see it used with no fanfare. This isn’t the show attempting to be clever; this is clever people making the show. It neatly unpacks our assumptions: no, Korra hasn’t been brawling in the ring for six months, this is her first time, a random snapshot of her mendicant quest. She’s down and out but she’s fighting. Or better than fighting, she’s proceeding. Korra’s not defeated; she’s defiant.
We do get a little bit of that recovery episode, and mostly with Katara doing her best Beatrix Kiddo impression. “Wiggle. Your Big Toe.” There are healing baths and physical therapy and as a guy three-quarters of the way through a year of physical therapy for a rebuilt shoulder, I’m ready to identify with this suckitude. Luckily Mako and Bolin write perfect letters, and we get just enough prose between Asami and Korra to fuel the shipper’s engines, so it’s not all a down note. Eventually, we even get a little of the old montage magic, and Korra’s back in the game—Avatar Spirit AWOL, not quite 100% and struggling with her inner demons, but up and at ’em.
You know where I’m going with this. Korra’s chasing Avatar Korra—or vice-versa, depending on how you look at it—and to me this just comes back around to my pet theory. I predicted before this season started that this book would be called Balance, and I predicted long before that that Korra would unify the yin and yang of Raava and Vaatu. I think this plot line—especially as Korra walks in and out of the Spirit Worlds in a dreamlike Miyazaki quest—is still sizzling on the griddle.
And so we get to Yoda. Toph. Yoda. It’s fitting to find her in the swamp, as that is where Aang saw the flying pig that guided him to Toph in the first place. See, even before Korra re-aligned the Spirit World and the Physical World, these places overlapped. That’s concise, cohesive worldbuilding, with the closing of a thematic loop thrown in for good measure.
This episode is just so tightly written; when the Nick.com commercial break kicked in I thought it was the end of the episode, there’s so much storytelling jammed in there. And get Toph out of the way early in the season; like the flashbacks to adult Aang, there is a part of us that wants to see this, but this is a new story. Or heck, surprise me; maybe Toph will just stick with the show the rest of the way. That’s what she did in Avatar: the Last Airbender, after all.
While I’m admiring technical proficiency, how about the animation in this one, huh? When Avatar Korra goes all T-1000 on Korra? Oh, yikes, that poison is nasty. Here I thought the Creepy Avatar manifestation was cruel but perhaps ultimately benign…but this calls that theory into question. But the whole Exorcist Korra thing is really great, right? Perfectly in time for the holidays. Fits in with the first series’ Bloodbender episode in the “Horror” genre.
Then there are all the little easter eggs scattered throughout. Goofy adult Aang, still in touch with his sense of whimsy, caught in a photograph. Toph’s distinctive body posture reminds me of how on the nose they are with adult Zuko’s slouch as well. Plus Avatar Kyoshi fighting a sharksquid, one-handed—have I mentioned lately that if there ever is another Avatar cycle, I think they should do a prelude about Kyoshi?
What we got this week was pleasantly surprising. Spooky Korra Zombie isn’t Korra out of control on power or sick with poison, but a restless shade playing Scrooge. Nor has Korra flaked out on her friends or abandoned her responsibilities; no, Korra’s operating on the thin sliver a twilight between fear and hope. Her mental trauma is mixed in with…what, the Avatar’s connection to the spirit world? Wandering Raava? Who can say, yet. Still, she turns away from Republic City not to hide, but to seek. For me, that makes a world of difference.
I’m finding it very easy to root for her right now, and coming from a place of trepidation about that, thinking we would get a Debbie Downer episode…well, it looks like last season wasn’t a fluke. This show has smoothed out all of the road bumps…just in time for Nick to dump it. I am not heartbroken about that: we still get the show. Everything comes to an end, and the alchemy of creation, between showrunners and writers and animators and directors and producers and yes, even the network, it’s all part of it. Avatar: the Last Airbender was so good in large part because it had a proper ending, it wasn’t milked or dragged out undue seasons. The Legend of Korra might not be ending as organically, but I trust them to end it as well.
Mordicai Knode also appreciates the little costuming details, like Tenzin’s leaf button. Find him on Tumblr or Twitter.
Something I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere is that the black eye bruising around Korra’s eye kind of calls back to Zuko’s scar. “Korra Alone” indeed.
Do you suppose that fish roll stand operator might just be an elderly Foaming Mouth Guy from Kyoshi Island? After all, he loved that trick so much…and he mentions Avatar Kyoshi.
Interesting that Korra is once again calling back to Star Wars. We already had one incarnation of Yoda in the Guru, and now it looks like we’re in for another. In a spiritually-charged swamp, yet!
Something else worth noting is that this is the first time in the entire series that we’ve spent much time with elderly Katara. She’s gotten a line here and there, now and then, but not an actual scene full of characterization. She’s now an expert healer with a lifetime of experience in both physical and spiritual healing processes, and it shows. It makes for an interesting contrast to Toph, later on. (And if Toph is going to help Korra get back on her feet…well, unless she’s mellowed considerably with age, I’m now imagining a mentoring process a la “Bitter Work.” “Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Twinkle Toes, and face your problems head on! Like this boulder!” WHOOSH!)
I wonder whether the next episode will jump plotlines back to the rest of the world and we’ll go another week before learning how Korra’s been doing? Hopefully it will blend the two. I can’t imagine it will take them all that long to suss out where Korra is, especially if Jinora asks around in the Spirit World.
@mordicai
I completely agree. Everything starting with “Beginnings I&II” has just been firing on all cylinders, and specifically with Book 3 on, the writing has been stellar. I’m a bigger fan of Korra than my wife is, she’s more in the A:TLA camp, but even she was moved by this episode. I think it ranks up there in the pantheon of all the episodes.
The thing I love most about this episode is that it acknowledges that there is a cost for things. Korra has had to pay, and dearly, for what happened last season. This episode is what I wish the first half of season 2 had been. Korra didn’t really have to deal with her bending being taken away (except for Air), and that minorly disappointed me. I know that this is due to the fact that it was only 1 season to start with that later got extended, but still… Anyways, this was one of the best episodes in the Avatar universe, and I am so excited to see where this season goes.
Shadow Korra took me back to when I first read A Wizard of Earthsea, and I hope/wish/expect this will have a similar resolution to Ged’s own predicament with a nameless shade.
I do still think Shadow Korra is not malignant; that metal pool vision was nasty, but nowhere is stated that your spirit teacher/double has to be nice and pleasant about teaching you stuff, and it’s known that Korra can be pretty stubborn and teaching her something requires a heavy hand.
And Korra’s mood the last time she entered the Avatar state was pure, unbridled rage and that’s the form her shadow is manifesting at.
1. Robotech_Master
:o
If that ain’t true, it might as well be now. #headcanon
I mean, not to mention that ANYTIME stuff gets all Monomyth– as Korra in general & this episode in specific have– it evokes Star Wars. This is totally the hero’s descent into the underworld!
I think Katara’s style is take-no-guff, take-charge, but ultimately soft. Like, you know, waterbending. Toph, who clashed with Aang’s style, is going to fit right in with Korra’s style. “Twinkle-toes, I need you to get angry & stubborn, do you think you can do that? I want you to FIGHT!”
2. hihosilver28
It’s a shame that just as the show really finds it’s legs, it is canned by the network, but that’s the way of the world. Like they said at NYCC; these guys will create more, & I’ll follow it, but I think this is the last word in televised Avatar-verse, at least for a while, right? Sad but I agree, at this point no one can call Korra the also-ran show; it has acheieved it’s own level of independent success & identity.
3. Al-X
No spoilers please! Ursula Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle was my vacation reading last year– zomg, The Dispossessed, already one of my top ten books of all time, maybe top five– & Earthsea is what I’ve got planned this year! I’ve been being patient!
I tend to agree that the Shadow Self will be…not good, but useful? It’s just that, well, the poison was supernatural, as well, & the poison was all about messing with the Avatar State. Seeing it associated with that poison adds doubt. Maybe Shadow Avatar Self is sick, or corrupted, or…or maybe it’s just the shape her fears take & I’m over-thinking it. Who ME?
You know, this show’s portrayal of AdultAang has always felt off to me.
Not necessarily the show’s fault. They’ve been limited in how they’ve been able to show him within the confines of the new story. You only know him from seeing how Tenzin, the child closest to him, turned out, and when he took Yakone’s bending.
But that picture, it finally clicked in place, that Adult Aang IS OUR Aang.
And let’s not ignore the fact that spirit impersonated PuppyNaga to get Korra’s attention.
This episode was awesome, and I’m still trying to figure out what exactly is going on. At first I thought AvatarStateKorra was a hallucination brought on by her PTSD, but obviously, with the fight in the swamp, it’s more than that. The physical manifestation of the part of herself that she’s been cut off from?
And yes, my Korrasami heart pittered and pattered over the fact that Asami was the only member of Team Avatar she responded to. And I like the seedings of the Kuvira issue, you saw her mentioned by Tenzin in her early efforts to work in the Earth Kingdom.
@3: Re A Wizard of Earthsea: I was thinking the same thing! Not a bad source to draw inspiration from, if they indeed drew from it.
Didn’t Korra’s connections to her past Avatar lives get severed in Season 2? I wonder if Toph — who seems to insist on calling Korra by the nickname of her past self — will somehow help restore those links.
Having lost her connection to her past lives I hope Korra tries adding some new skills into the avataar spirit for the benefit of her future selves avataar-state.
Start by learning some blood bending from Katara (while she’s still around). It may have a bad press but that’s only cause bad people have used it, a responsible avataar could do great good with it.
Lava bending from Bolin.
Lightning from Mako (has she done any of this yet?)
Can the avataar state use non-bending abilities? Because Chi-blocking could come in handy.
She’s already learning spirit purifying and metal bending, just needs to improve on them.
Any others?
Overthinking ftw XD
I think the poison pool is just Korra’s disassociated Avatar self playing with her own PTSD to shock her and expose her raw feelings, so she can deal with them, because she’s a master at denial-bending (she’s grown out of it a lot, but that’s still who she is).
So this is where she’s been for the past six months. Thinking about it, I strongly expect that the next episode will see her recovery wrapped up and put her back in the present day. The more time they spend on this, the fewer episodes they’ll have to deal with the political crisis du jour. Is Korra going to be pleased about what Kuvira is doing? Is Toph going to be happy about it? I rather doubt it.
I hope they don’t wimp out and have Toph stay in the swamp after Korra’s back up to speed. Just have to wait and see, I guess.