Legend of Korra Book 3 Chapters 6-7 review - Old Wounds/Original Airbenders

Thought I'd try out a new Korra image for this one

Anyway, as Nickolodeon continue to blaze through this series, I blaze through the reviews, we now look at chapters 6 and 7


Chapter 6 - Old Wounds

Synopsis: As Lin Beifong remembers her past, Suyin teaches Korra metal-bending, whilst an anxious Bolin observes

Near the airing of book 2, the following teaser poster was released

Nothing really became of this poster. Aang appeared in 1 scene in the spirit world, Sokka's hasn't appeared in flashback since before this poster came out (he's dead at present) while Zuko and Katara have only appeared in their present day forms, but at least we get more of Toph in this story

Old wounds is another character driven episode, with the focus being Lin Beifong. Whilst in book 1 we saw a lot of character development for Lin as a professional, book 3 is giving us a more personal story for Lin, even though I think her inclusion in the group is a little forced. (Who is chief of police in Republic City in her absence, not Saikhan again?)

The story behind the divide the two sisters is an honourable one, they say old wounds run deep, and this is casein point of that, with both literal and figurative meaning. The fight between the two of them at the end was satisfying, and it’s a nice touch that it was Opel who stopped them. Freedom and peace are major aspects of air-bending.

I’m a little concerned if I’m honest about Korra learning metal-bending (and the fact she found it easy) she’s an incredibly powerful Avatar, and that presents issues when it comes to having villains to match

Speaking of the villains, we see that Zaheer is a guy who can find Korra via meditation, which brings me back to the question of how he’s so good at it, but that for another time, we see a few spirits for the first time since the first episode, but they don’t contribute much to the story here, so…

Bolin, while Mako and Asami are side-lined here really, Bolin has his star character moments, revealing his deep desire to become a metal-bender (and actually be better than Korra at something) and him drawing parallels with Opel’s desire to join the airbenders is well crafted. The relationship’s still a little on thin grounds, but I’m warming to it

We also have the situation that Lin was feeling weak throughout most of the episode (climaxing with her fainting) it’s possible that stress was the cause of it, but I’m a cynic, it’s possible she’s been drugged, possibly even before the acupuncture session. We’ll find out soon enough.

Rating 9/10

Chapter 7 – The Original Air-benders

Synopsis: Tenzin struggles to train the new airbenders at the Northern Air Temple

So, after an episode with very little plot development, we get one where there’s no significant plot development at all. But that’s not to say it wasn’t an enjoyable and in fact necessary episode. Tenzin’s determination to rebuild the air-nation once again was again the core here, as he tries to teach them to be nomads, including telling them stories from the air nation (did Aang suddenly lose all his sense of fun when he grew up?)

Given the lack of dark moments and action in this episode, this episode plays more for comedy than the previous episodes, and it mostly works. Tenzin taking Korra’s advice completely the wrong way, and the consequences of it are funny, and Milo gets a couple of good lines too (seriously though, Ikki needs more development)

We also see more of the romance between Jinora and Kai develop. I like this one because while it’s obvious it’s never explicit, letting a relationship form rather than blossom out of convenience helps make it more believable

So, the sort-of-villains in this section are some bounty-hunters selling sky-bisons for their meat to Ba-Sing-Se (I told you the Earth queen stuff isn’t over) oh, and in the course, we find out what may have happened to poor Bosco, and now, like most people I’m thoroughly hoping to see the Earth Queen get her ass kicked.

It’s nice to see the spirit portals being left open actually having consequences, with Jinora’s natural spiritual connections, and Bumi’s relationship with Boom-Jun (I like that they did say that he got the gist, rather than directly communicating with the spirits) being a central part of her escape from the bounty hunters (though Kai knows how to put his own skills to use)

It’s filler, however, although Avatar has before made filler episodes important, so this score could go up.

Also, if learning to ride (as a pilot for want of a better word) a bison takes year, how come Korra, who’s been Tenzin’s student for less than a year I’d think (given a 6 month break between books 1 and 2, only 2 weeks between 2 and 3) was piloting one in ‘In harm’s way’?

Rating 7/10
Update: The baby bison came back again - I'm upping the rating just for that
Rating 8.5/10

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