Legend of Korra Book 4 Chapters 10-11 review - Operation Beifong/Kuvira's Gambit

We take our look in the final days of the Legend of Korra, as I do my penultimate review of the game (possible rage-review of the game notwithstanding) This week Lin, Opal and Bolin mount a rescue mission and Kuvira unveils her latest weapons

Chapter 10 – Operation Beifong

We get a full Beifong reunion, action scene and drama. And we finally get Kuvira back into the fold. And a showdown between her and her old mentor, and Wing and Wei in an action scene, and, ah what the hell, there’s only really one reaction I got from this episode.

Yeah… This episode excited me pretty much all the way through. But hey, I’ll try to be objective for this review, so let’s get down to the plot.

Toph joins Lin, Bolin and Opal on their rescue mission, meanwhile Kuvira’s spirit vine energy-weapon is about to be tested, and Jhu-Li must make a move if she’s to stop it in time. Also, whilst Republic City prepares for war the spirits are fleeing the city, Korra tries to persuade them help defend the city.

So, in order for me to stop squeeeeing, let’s look at Korra’s subplot where Wu says something intelligent (guess there’s a first time for everything, but then he’s doing it to woo Korra, something he doesn’t have a chance of doing, but anyway…)

Reiko wants a spirt-vine weapon, but Varrick says no, and Asami and him have come up with mecha-tanks that can fly – this could be an interesting final battle indeed. And there will be one, Kuvira is attacking the City in 2 weeks, and we can guess that things will start to happen there

Baatar Jr intrigued me in this episode. He showed concern when Opel showed up to rescue Jhu Li from the spirit vines, and chose not to intervene when Suyin and Kuvira did battle (not that it would’ve mattered, it appears the apprentice has become the master) maybe Kuvira’s too far gone, but I suspect Baatar Jr may soon realise the madness of Kuvira’s plans and have a change of heart.

So, Korra enters the spirit world and tries to convince the spirits to help, but they point out that using spirits as a weapon is exactly what Kuvira’s doing, again drawing the parallels between the two characters.

OK, let’s get to the fan-gasm stuff now shall we? Toph reveals who Lin’s father is, and… it’s someone we’ve never heard of. But hey, it’s worth it just to see Lin’s reaction. Lin clearly held a grudge against her mother for it, and frankly, with a family that’s been apart for so long, I can live with that (although, if Toph had been keeping an eye on Suyin, wouldn’t she have known her and Lin had patched things up)

So, the rescue goes off as plan, but as we all expected, Jhu Li was a double-agent the whole time, and betrayed Kuvira (if it wasn’t obvious before, there was some foreshadowing in this episode when they test the weapon) she is placed in the otherwise abandoned town they’re testing the spirit weapon on because Kuvira is that messed up.

So, action ensues, and it’s incredibly satisfying. Lin holds her own, as she should. Suyin faces off against Kuvira, and Wing and Wei also get their moments to shine. Pity that Huan didn’t get involved, he’s a metal-bender too, isn’t he? (But then he looked outright despondent after the whole thing, maybe he’s going through some PTSD too)

I don’t think I can ask for a better Korra episode than this one, marked by the final revelation. Kuvira is attacking Republic City in 2 weeks. Things will be coming to a head by next week.

Rating 9.5/10

Memorable Quotes
"How did you end up dating the kind of dipstick that works for Kuvira?"
"What's up with him?" "He's an actor"
"Please tell me this attitude isn't hereditary"
"You always have to ruin it, don't you"
"So, how are you doing, mother?" "I told you never to call me that"

Chapter 11 – Kuvira’s Gambit

Wow, that was an intense episode

After last week’s more action heavy episode, this episode is surprisingly light on the action, but there’s a good reason for that: in terms of raw power available to them Kuvira won the battle before she stepped foot in the United Republic.

So, let’s start with the elephant in the room here. That 25-story tall mecha-suit. It’s been foreshadowed for a while that Kuvira needed a lot of metal for some unknown purpose (the chief of the state of Yai mentioned that Kuvira only wants the region because it’s rich in ore) this became even more apparent with Kuvira’s dismantlement of the domes of Zaofu, and here we find out why. I’ll be honest, although this show has shown us major technological advancements, this was a bit silly, but… it’s the fun kind of silly that draws to its anime roots (whilst not a Japanese anime in itself, it draws heavy inspiration from them) so I’ll keep that as a very minor quibble.

So, with Kuvira holding all the cards, including arriving a week early, Reiko has no choice but to surrender, thankfully, thanks to Wu, Pemma and some cheap still image shots (yeah, I reckon they needed to save a few more pennies) they got the majority of citizens out of the city.

But Korra’s not surrendering. In one of her better moments this seasons, she comes up with and executes a successful stealth mission to kidnap Baatar Jr. Her attempts to convince him to give up his secrets shows how she has become a very smart young woman. Discovering his greatest weakness. Kuvira.

Upon seeing the opening scene, I had suspected that Baatar Jr would be in some way instrumental to Kuvira’s ultimate demise. We’ve yet to see exactly how, but in a moment that marks Kuvira’s ruthlessness as a villain she opens fire, destroying all the flying mecha-suits (pity we never get to see them in action) and possibly doing a lot more damage.

Bring on next week’s 2-part finale

Rating 9/10

Memorable Quotes
"Tighten tighter, the president says we've only got two weeks to get those humming birds humming hmmmmm"
Mako's evacuation handbook speech (I won't quote all of it)
"Kuvira's gonna rue the day she messed with Meelo"

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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.