Legend of Korra Book 3 Chapters 1-3 review - A breath of fresh air/Rebirth/The Earth Queen

When it comes to animation. I've always said the best shows are those that can appeal to children, but don't talk down to adults. A perfect example of that is Avatar: The Last Airbender (not to be confused with the films Avatar or The Last Airbender, the cr*ppy movie based on the show). A show that created an interesting lore and told a compelling story with interesting characters.

The Legend of Korra takes the lore of the show, and places it in a modern setting. So as well as Dragons and Sky Bison we have air ships and the radio (things that while they existed, they were not commonplace in Avatar: The Last Airbender.) Avatar: Legend of Korra has the disadvantage that they need to tell self-contained stories over much shorter book lengths, which does get in the way of story-telling and character development

I will do reviews of books 1 and 2 of Korra later on, but suffice it to say, they had their ups and downs, but book 2 left things an interesting position going into book 3

A few weeks ago, several episodes of book 3 were leaked, this resulted in the release date for book 3 being pushed up to last Friday, when the first 3 episodes would be aired. So without further ado, let’s get into episodes 1-3 of the Legend of Korra book 3, change

1. A breath of fresh air

So we return to Republic city, where we see Korra working with Tenzin dealing with the consequences of her decisions in book 2. We didn't see a lot of consequence in book 2, particularly how Republic city reacted to her decisions in book 2.

Korra says she feels like she doesn't know what she’s supposed to be doing (which is how it felt like for the first half of book 2) but (wow, that was pretty quick) she actually works out what she wants to do by the end of this episode.

I really enjoyed the episode, Republic city are, unsurprisingly, not happy with Korra over her choices, particularly President Reico. Korra's still a hot-head, but she seems to be blowing up at the right people in frustrations, and the blow ups are not as annoying as they once were

We get a Korra and Asami bonding session. Korra and Asami barely had any scenes together in book 2, and considering what happened between them and Mako, it was funny to watch their banter.

I also liked how Korra started using that makeshift Airbender glider. It’s nice to see her attempting to save lives, something I thought was lacking a little in both books 1 and 2. Her talking to the guy on the bridge was particularly good, because she went through with it without resorting to violence (could it be she's actually developed as a character?)

Bolin's role was minimal in this episode, he was there and had a few funny moments and those that showed he was a good earth-bender (something very much missing in most of book 2)

Mako seems to be the problem, I'm not entirely sure what the writers want to do with him, but they need to get on with it. Despite having fairly prominent roles in books 1 and 2, he’s been probably the least interesting character in the show, with his primary character development being who he's currently dating. Mako is in dire need of real character development.

Animation looks beautiful, Studio Mir are back in house once again, after Studio Pierot did the first halfish of book 2, and it shows. The backgrounds are detailed; the faces are fluid; the movements are excellent; the action is crisp, everything you want from Avatar

The music also excellent as usual.

OK, some spoilers now, skip to the episode 2 review if you’d rather avoid spoilers

So, as a consequence of Harmonic convergence, not only half republic city become the new spirit wilds, but new airbenders have been cropping up, including Bumi. The reaction of everyone finding out he’s an airbender was priceless

The sudden appearance of airbenders opens a lot of potential for character development, particularly for Tenzin and his family. Tenzin got a lot of the character focus in book 2, but it’s good that it’s now on the future rather than his past

Korra is still unable to connect with her past lives, but is able to enter the Avatar state (bear in mind, those saying that she shouldn't that Wan also entered the Avatar state, and he had no past lives either)

There was also a brief scene with Tenzin and his kids, and it was really quite touching

                                                                                                                         

We also meet one of our antagonists, Zaheer, who is another of the airbenders that has just cropped up. Seemingly quite familiar with Air Nomad culture, but even so it is strange that he seems so good at airbending, whilst being imprisoned

My only other gripe with the episode is the real lack of any spiritual threat. The integration between spirits and humans is bound to have conflicts, but maybe they’re saving that for later on in the book

2. Rebirth (of a Nation)

Honestly there isn't a lot more I can say here that I haven’t said for the previous one without any spoilers

It looks like Tenzin's character arc is set up, while he got a lot of character development in book 2, I suspect more will come in book 3.

We’re introduced to our new character, Kai, and he seems like he could be interesting

Mako still needs character development

Yup, that’s pretty much all I can say without spoilers, skip to episode 3 to avoid spoilers

That short scene with Naga and Oogi both panting on the air-ship was adorable, just little touches like that make it worth watching

The search for the airbenders is underway, but that doesn't come without problems. Tenzin is determined that they become full air-nomads and repopulate the temples, and a lot of people don’t want to abandon their families, their lives and possessions. Tenzin may have to compromise on his culture, if he is to save the air-nomads.

Korra’s attempt to persuade someone didn't go much better, her tough-love approach was totally in character, luckily Mako and Bolin were able to hold her back and prevent her doing something she’d regret.

Bolin had a brilliant idea to do an airbending display, where, much to my amusement, Mako plays a firebending criminal. And Tenzin taking his shirt off did them favours too. And it works, it brings them Kai, a criminal who had stolen his foster-family’s life savings. He doesn’t seem like a major threat, but it definitely the type that could become it with the wrong influences.

Couple of negatives, first Mako said he’d have to call Beifong, but nothing really came of that point. Second Korra was a little too quick to violence when encountered by the ‘outlaws’ I noticed the badges almost immediately, and concluded they were police.

On the other side of the story, we have Zaheer breaking out two of his cohorts, the first an Earthbender named Ghazan, from a wooden boat in the ocean (these are perfect prison choices, even Toph couldn't get out of a wooden cage) Ghazan is a powerful earthbender able to increase the temperature of the Earth  (it's doalso.) We also had an armless waterbender named Ming-Hua, imprisoned in the fire-nation, though how they kept her alive without giving her water is anybody’s guess. We’re also introduced to a familiar face of Lord Zuko (retired firelord I assume, since pretty sure the firelord was a she in book 2) and his great big f*ckin' Dragon (squeee!!)

3. The Earth Queen

Ba Sing Se is the city of walls and secrets, and I can’t say much as changed since the hundred year war.

It looks stunning though, Studio Mir really made the landscape look fantastic

We get more Korra and Asami bonding, including a pretty decent fight scene

We meet the twins from book 2, with some really funny banter

So, more spoilers to follow

The search for the airbenders leads Team Avatar into Ba Sing Se, which is just as corrupt as it ever was, although the Earth Queen is not the naïve tool her father was (she doesn't even like animals, that had to be awkward) she also carries resent that the United Republic exists on what once was Earth Kingdom territory (if you've read the Avatar comics, the Promise dictates the reasoning behind the forming of the United Republic)

Kai just can’t help himself it would seem as he runs off, his moments provided decent comedy for the episode, as he lives it up, and set up an interesting development for Mako and Bolin (yes I did just use interesting and Mako in the same sentence) as they encounter their extended family.

The Dai Li are still around, in spite of what happened in book 2 of The Last Airbender, and that can only mean trouble. I suppose you can understand why the Dai Li exist when you see how the royal guards react to a few muggers, the Dai Li appear to be recruiting an airbender army, possibly for a United Republic invasion.

We don’t see any of Zaheer and his crew today, just Tonraq, Zuko and the Twins talk about P'Li, or as we might prefer to call her, combustion woman. There was some really funny banter in the elevator ‘I tried to kill Korra after she ruined my wedding, it happens’ and the look on Tonraq's face was priceless.

Bad, I suppose we could've seen more of Tenzin, but this seems more like a two-parter, and I’m happy to wait the two weeks we need to find out how it’s resolved, with Tenzin more then likely to be involved. 

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Images used in this review are from The Legend of Korra and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.