Lords, ladies, and those who do not fall into the category “lord” or “lady”: I have finished Avatar, I have watched the movie (I know, I know, I know. You all told me it was bad. It was bad.), and now it’s time to newbie recap some Legend of Korra, starting with the pilot. But first, for the sake of full disclosure, here’s what I already know about the show:
- Korra’s the next Avatar, and people from all different nations live together in less-isolated-from-each-other peace and harmony, until they don’t.
- Nickelodeon hated it, apparently.
- The Avatar world had an Industrial Revolution! They grow up so fast.
- There’s some love triangle bullshit, but it ends with Korrasami so I think I can power my way through it.
- Old Toph and Zuko show up. People got busy and had kids.
- Asami is voiced by the actress who plays Yue in the Shyamalan movie.
- There is an abundance of violent, villainous ladies… I think?
- It’s super fucked up and an airbender kills someone by bending the air from their lungs. I am waiting so much for that, you don’t even know.
And, most importantly:
- GIANT BEAR DOG.
First thoughts: Hearing someone not Katara do the “EARTH. FIRE. AIR. WATER. HEART.” intro seems wrong, but I’ll get over it. On voiceover duty this time around is Aang and Katara’s son, Tenzin. He’s a serious-minded fella who’s also an airbender and one of the leaders of Republic City, the capital of the United Republic of Nations, which Aang and Zuko set up together (pause for friendship feels) as a place where people from all nations, benders and non-benders alike, could live together in peace and harmony. Pause again:
GUYS. THE YELLOW M&M VOICES TENZIN.
Post-intro, we learn that the new Avatar, Korra, has been squirreled away since she was discovered as a toddler in a guarded compound run by the White Lotus, where she’s been trained in fire-, water-, and earthbending. Unlike Aang, a cupcake of love and happiness who wanted to sing medleys around a campfire and never hurt anyone, Korra is a, er, less spirituality-minded person who just wants to party—if by party you mean FUCK PEOPLE UP.
Yeah, I like ‘er.
Hold up. Do I spot HAIR LOOPIES?
It’s elderly Katara! And you can see from her reactions to Korra fighting that Korra is basically her favorite person in the world… which is natural, considering she’s Katara’s husband reincarnated, which maybe led to some awkward dinner conversations? I find it a liiiiiiittle weird that the White Lotus has, for all intents and purposes, kept this teenage girl cut off from most of the world for basically her entire life, but Katara’s in on it, so I’m going to assume the weirdo cult vibes are unintentional and just… move on.
One of the White Lotus chaps is wary about how Korra likes beating dudes up a little too much, but Katara steps in and convinces him to let Korra learn airbending from Tenzin. Only when Tenzin rolls in on a flying bison—three kids and a pregnant wife in tow—it turns out he’s only staying overnight, because he has Shit To Do in Republic City. (Miscellaneous item: Aang and Katara’s other kids were named Kya, after Katara’s mom, and Bumi. Awwww.) Korra tries to convince the White Lotus to let her go with Tenzin, but they refuse, which isn’t a big deal, because literally everyone has to know she’s going to escape on her GIANT POLAR BEAR DOG:
It’s a GIANT POLAR BEAR DOG.
Appa, I love you, but Naga? Naga is my favorite.
Katara catches Korra escaping and gives the Avatar her blessing. Also, we find out that Sokka’s dead. Awww. RIP, my cactus juice-loving punster:
I am actually sad about this. It’s not fun.
Korra and Kaga stow away on a ship and wake up in STEAMPUNK CITY, where they quickly discover that having no money is an impediment to things like… eating! Korra catches and cooks some fish in the park, where she meets one of Republic City’s apparently quite large homeless population, her first hint that maybe everything isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. She gets hit with a clue-by-four yet again when she runs into a trio of mob enforcers (look, this show has MOB ENFORCERS) from the Triple Threat Triad trying to shake down a local shop owner for protection money.
Korra doesn’t have a middle name, because as far as I can tell most people in the ATLAverse with the exception of the Beifongs don’t even have last names, but if Korra did have a middle name, it would be “FIGHT ME.”  She whoops some ass and gets arrested by metalbending cops in the process. When she tries the “DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!?!?!” defense, the police chief informs her that she doesn’t give a single fuck, there will be NO BATMANS IN MY TOWN. Fair: Korra caused a fuckton of collateral damage. Also not fair, because Republic City clearly has an organized crime problem that the establishment isn’t dealing with. I’m pretty sure that’s not because of any lack of will on the police chief’s part, though, because the police chief is Toph’s daughter, and therefore she is hard as fuck.
Lin Beifong? More like Win Beifong, professional hardass.
Korra is bailed out of jail by Tenzin, who promises Lin that she’ll be shipped back to the South Pole. Korra, however, convinces Tenzin that she needs to stay in Republic City, basically arguing that “this city is clearly fucked up, and I am the Avatar. Seriously. The math. Do it.” Tenzin agrees. Lin, off in the distance, develops a slight yet piercing headache.
Korra holds a press conference, where she gives an inspiring speech (I think she got that skill from Katara) about how she doesn’t exaaaactly know how to Avatar quite yet, but together they can make Republic City a place of peace and balance. Listening to the speech over the radio is a masked gent named Aman, who’s the leader of an anti-bending group we heard about earlier in the episode. He’s creepy as fuck, and the way he says “So, the Avatar has arrived early. It looks like we’ll have to accelerate our plans” isn’t exactly non-shady. So. Here he is. The season’s (??) Big Bad.
But. It is time for me to potentially make a fool of myself in front of all the people who have actually seen this show. We were introduced to Amon’s group when Korra came across a megaphone-wielding protestor who was speaking to a small crowd about the way benders oppress non-benders, who (he says) are forced to live as second-class citizens. The way Korra deals with the guy isn’t exactly tactful, by the way: she basically tells this protestor “Oppressed my ass! Bending is awesome!” (Honey, no. You have been in this city for five minutes.) Maybe it’s just the Times In Which We Live, but I’m going to assume a group saying they’re oppressed is actually being oppressed, and that there’s some truth to Megaphone Man’s claims of benders being LoK‘s one percenters. I mean, immediately after this scene we get the bender mob trying to extort non-bender small business owners, so… I smell foreshadowing there. The anti-bending group has eau de terrorist about them, sure, and the way Megaphone Man is all “TEAR DOWN THE OLD ORDER” isn’t reassuring, but I think there’s more complexity to this than what we’re seeing now.
Rebecca has newbie recapped Avatar and Battlestar Galactica for The Mary Sue before. She photoshopped The Rock’s head on a dolphin once. You can find her at Film Journal International, Pajiba, or on Twitter.
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