TV Retrospective: Legend of Korra Book 1 Chapters 4-6 - A voice in the night/The Spirit of Compeition/And the winner is...

Chapter 4 - A voice in the night

Synopsis - Korra is unnerved by the actions of Amon, but is forced into action, and must confront her fears ready for an unforgettable battle for Amon

Review - Being the Avatar means being under a lot of pressure, something that's been very clear from the beginning. Aang wasn't just an Avatar, he was expected to defeat the Firelord, and knew he had till summer's end to do it. Whilst Korra's time scale isn't so scary, a lot of expectations are placed on her as well, and this really comes into play here, as the plot finally gets moving.

We're introduced to a guy who's clearly another antagonist, Tarlok is manipulative, deceitful, but does seem to want to put an end to the equalist threat now.

Meanwhile we have the sub-plot which introduces our final member of Team Avatar, Asami. She nearly runs Mako over, her father's rich and they fall in love. How shallow is this guy?! Anyway, Korra's pressure eventually forces her into Tarlok's anti-equalist task force and eventually the pressure gets her to issue a challenge to Amon, and it goes about as well as you'd expect

I think this is a good area for Korra's character. Having been cooped up, she really hasn't felt fear before, not knowing how to deal with it, seems like a perfect arc for Korra.

Rating 8.5/10

Chapter 5 - The Spirit of Competition

Synopsis - Love is in the air. Bolin loves Korra who likes Mako who likes Asami and Korra, who will win, and who will have their hearts broken?

Review - I don't have a lot to say for this one, not an awful lot happens as the plot once again takes a back seat. The problem is, it instead focuses on romances that were poorly established to start with.

The effects on their team work in pro-bending is good, but it's just a filler episode with very little point to it otherwise, although it does bring up a plot-point that's used later.

It's nice to see Korra display that she's a "top-notch waterbender" and I like how she used Naaga (they love to give personalities to their animals in these shows, and while it's not as well developed as with TLA, they don't have the time for it to be)

Rating 5/10

Chapter 6 - And the winner is...

Looking at it critically, there's quite a bit wrong with this episode. Amon's resources, influence and technology seems to have radically expanded in the few weeks since his last appearance, he now has explosives, access to the pro-bending arena (how else did he plant those flags) and the ability to take down several police air-ships.

Korra also seems quite weak in this episode. When she ran out of water during her hurricane thing (if only she could bend some sort of element that could help her there, fire maybe) and when she fell (if only she could bend some sort of element that would slow her descent, like water, you know, the same way she did back in chapter 2) we also have the fact that Korra's tie-break was one by a head-shot, and it wasn't from the Wolfbats.

Also, there are people watching this, you cannot seriously tell me that the results would stand over judicial review, even the commentator thinks the ref was bought off. The equalists are now full on terrorists, it's becoming harder and harder to understand their point of view, which by the way, is the reason you bring up controversial points.

But, hell, it's my favourite episode of the series. I suspect the reason is almost entirely Lynn Beifong. Finally doing something in the series, she saves Korra twice, and holds her own against equalists. We also hear how she was Tenzin's former lover. She's bad-ass and I love it.

Gorgeously animated, and the music was great too.

Rating 8.5/10

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