Review: The Legend of Korra “The Calling”

So, who exactly thought it was a good idea to send kids to find the savior of the world?

Spoilers Below

Every so often, episodes in the Avatar series have those defining moments. For instance, there’s Aang learning Fire-bending, Team Avatar meeting Toph so Aang can learn Earth-bending, Korra losing her connection to her past lives, “The Beginning,” Toph reemerging in Legend of Korra, and Korra fighting Zaheer. All of these have lasting effects on the series, even today. This week, Korra gave us another one of those defining moments,  and in grand fashion.

There were three episodes of Korra derping around, not realizing the metal poison was still in her. Of course, Toph felt it when no one else would, or we wouldn’t really have a story here. Another episode came and went, with Korra trying to work through having the poison in her, to no avail. So, where would that leave us? Korra was sulking at the end of the episode, and Tenzin sent his spec ops crew. Well, by spec ops crew, I mean his children. Who knew they could work together.

Working together is kind of at a premium, because there was no unity until the very end of the episode. Ikki, Meelo, and Jinora were three people with three different agendas, that somehow ended up coming together in the most spectacular case of happenstance, ever. This lead to a mini-reunion with Korra, the kids, and Meelo piecing together who Korra has been bunking within the swamp. The way this is shaping out, I see Toph coming out of her Dagobah grotto in the Swamp to help Zaofu in Kuvira’s raid. There is a lot of crazy shit coming down the pike, and it all starts next week with the assumption that Korra comes back to the world at large.

The episode as a whole was fantastic. Korra is still dealing with not being up to par, and it seems like Toph has practically given up on the young Avatar. Even though Toph is a sarcastic, pain in the ass bitch (which is still unwavering after 80 or so years), she has shown she has also grown into a wise sage. Yeah, she cut the outside from ever reaching her, but she still sees everything in the Earth Kingdom. I know, I pulled it from last week, sue me. Anyway, there were a lot of advancements in Korra’s character, including finally getting rid of the baggage from her three biggest enemies. This has to be the biggest advancement Korra has seen yet because this was able to get her back to the form she had before Zaheer put the poison in her.

There were nods to Avatar past as well, like some of the fan services with Toph mentioning Sokka, which drove Tumblr into a frenzy. No, seriously, search “The Calling,” and see how many people went nuts. I’ll even give you a second. Now that we have that out of our system, I was happy to see Toph give a nod to Aang’s generation when she doesn’t change her philosophy in training the Avatar. The face may change, but you can’t hide the step from Toph. Toph made The Last Airbender, and she is making Book Four in Legend of Korra.

You’re all probably wondering why I kind of flew over Ikki, Meelo, and Jinora. Well, you knew that they were going to find Korra. It would have been something a little more worthwhile if they came back to the Air Temple empty-handed because no one could work together. But how things came up, it was predictable that they were going to find Korra, even when those vines grabbed Pepper and brought the air bison to the ground. When Toph brought Korra to the Banyon Grove Tree, you know, the same tree that Aang came to in The Last Airbender to connect to the Earth, you knew Korra was going to see at least that massive freaking bison just wallowing in the swamp muck. If no one makes a comment, that’s a missed opportunity at a funny joke.

I really dug “The Calling,” as well as Book Four so far. The story is so much different because it’s not an omnipotent evil Korra has to go against. She has to confront someone who saved her life by helping against Zaheer. Kuvira is going to be a whole different type of monster because she doesn’t want to kill all of the benders, become the ultimate evil, or create total anarchy. Kuvira wants a reunited Earth Empire at all costs. The only question is what can Kuvira do against a fully rejuvenated Avatar? The answers start to role in next week when the invasion of Zaofu begins! Book Four has me all forms of pumped to see what happens next.