Review: The Legend of Korra “The Earth Queen”

Words to remember: Zuko is a badass, no matter how old he is. Why, you ask? He’s got dragons!

 

Spoilers Below

So far, the third book of The Legend of Korra is right on the money. The world is showing their disapproval of Korra since Harmonic Convergence, going so far as the President banning her from Republic City. This is due to her not being able to take care of the spirits and the wild vines that are showing up in the city. That leads to Korra going on a world tour, trying to deal with the other side effect of Harmonic Convergence, the onset of airbending powers to individuals all over the world.

Zuko, on a back of a god damn dragon,is finally back. However, he is dealing with a new threat to the world. Zaheer, Gahzan, Ming-Hua and Zaheer’s girlfriend (revealed in this episode to be P’Li) are on a mission to eliminate the Order of the White Lotus and the Avatar. However, because of Harmonic Convergence, Zaheer now has airbending powers to go with the other’s ridiculous bending powers as well. Now that I summed up an hour of television into two paragraphs, we are now ready for “The Earth Queen.”

Next up on Korra’s Airbending recruitment tour, she heads to Ba Sing Se. Bumi is training with his airbending, and getting his ass handed to him by Kai, the team’s first recruit. They make it to the great walled city, and it looks like it expanded since the times of Aang. The town has seen some bad times, especially in the lower ring, and the team notices it as they make it to the Upper Ring. They are introduced to the list of rules the Earth Queen has, but Kai doesn’t seem like he has quite shaken his thief tendencies yet. Meanwhile, Korra goes to meet The Earth Queen, who seems to have a 5 foot long stick stuck up her ass.

She arrests a guard for not doing her koi pond to her exact specifications, she turns her ire to Korra. The Earth Queen is still carrying a grudge because Aang and Zuko took land away from her father, and doesn’t seem like she will be helping out much. Back with Team Avatar, they are looking for Kai, who is running around the palace. Meanwhile, the Earth queen tells Korra that the only way she would even think about helping her is to get her money back that has been stolen, and bring it to her.

Bolin and Mako are looking for Kai, but are coming up empty handed. That is, until a sudden gust of wind lifts up a man’s cloak. Kai pops out to help the man, and pockets money from the guy. Mako sees this, and confronts him. Kai decides to book it, instead. Kai makes a run to the train, and airbends away from Mako and Bolin, who now forced to take a trip to Po Kong Station in the lower ring. They try to take a return trip, but ends up that Kai took both of their wallets. They’re now stuck in the Lower Ring, with no simple way out.

The airship is taking off, with the bums Mako and Bolin still stuck in the Lower Ring. However, Kai is living the dream in a hotel somewhere. Mako and Bolin decide to do an old trick of theirs, the fruit stand scam. It doesn’t really work, because they are confused. Turns out the fruit stand they are trying to steal belongs to their cousin and uncle. Tell me how many times that’s happened to you, am I right?

Anyway, Fire Lord Zuko is on his badass dragon, flying to the Northern Water Tribe. They talk to the creeper twins. Back in Ba Sing Se, Mako and Bolin meet their grandmother, Yin, as well as the entire extended family. They give the unfortunate news that their parents were killed, because no news came back.

Out by the vault, Korra gets the tax shipment. But before it can get loaded, the bandits come to steal it. That doesn’t really go well for the bandits, because they don’t really know who they’re messing with. Korra uses her earthbending, and Azami uses some badass martial arts to deter them from stealing the gold. They leave, saying the money belongs to the people, not the Queen, and Korra has a funny feeling that they’re right. Back at the Northern Water Tribe, the twins, Zuko, and Tunlaq make it to the secret prison. Zuko and Unalaq built the prison to hold P’Li, who has ability very similar to the Combustible Man From Avatar: The Last Airbender. The intense cold prevents the firebending, so, the four of them stand guard.

Bolin and Mako sit down to eat with the extended family. They get the story of San leaving the city, which ended with San not talking to their father again. Yin shows them the only letter and picture the family got from San, and Mako gives his scarf to Yin, since it belonged to her father. At the palace, Korra brings the money back, and wants to meet the airbenders. However, The Earth Queen tells her that the Dai Li investigated the matter, and no new airbenders were in the city. Korra wasn’t having any of this, saying she extorted the Queen’s people just to get sent away. She wasn’t having that, and she isn’t leaving until she finds some airbenders. The Queen dismisses her anyway, but Korra will find the airbenders anyway.

Mako and Bolin are telling their family about their adventures with the Avatar, ending with their new mission to find all of the new airbenders, and bring them to the Northern Air Temple. This is news to them, because they tell Mako and Bolin that the Dai Li took one of their neighbors who got airbending powers. The rumors are that the Earth Queen is taking all of the new airbenders, and using them for experiments. Bolin is worried about Kai, who just got arrested by the Dai Li.

So, if you remember my reviews from last year,  most of the Korra ones were pretty bad. I panned most of the season, because it was boring as shit. This season hit the ground running, and never took the foot off the gas. We got a great look at who may be the big villain in P’Li, and we got a look at the extended family of Bolin and Mako. Oh, and did I forget to mention that the voice of Zaheer is none other than Henry fucking Rollins?!  Yeah, the badass factor got raised a little bit by that one. But Kai, that little shit in the picture, is going to be a real pain in my ass, and will probably be the shitty romantic story with Jinora. At least we aren’t dealing with Korra and Mako as of now.

On top of that, this has to be the prettiest looking episodes thus far even when taking into account all of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The airship looked phenomenal,  all of the way down to the propeller blurs. When you get to the scene where Bolin and Mako are stuck in the Lower Ring, that crisp art turns very dirty and sludgy to show the transition between districts. They nailed this almost as well as they did with the art direction in “Beginnings,” which I said had the best animation that I have ever seen. That scene transition came pretty close to that in terms of art direction.

I have to say that, overall, this was a fantastic start to the season.Watching this episode, I kept saying, “change is good.” Having the setting take place two weeks or so after Harmonic Convergence was a smart idea, because you have all of the repercussions of all of the air benders getting their powers, including Zaheer. These benders, including P’Li represent bending abilities that are above and beyond anything we’ve seen before. So far we’ve seen some blood-bending, as well as metal-bending, but you can tell these guys are going to become more powerful as time goes on. If this episode is anything to go by, this season will be balls to the wall, because we already got more action this week than in the first 6 weeks combined for Book 2. Thanks for listening, Bryan Konietzko, you may have righted the ship.