Should you watch this, Wiki this, or wait for the recap? Definitely watch this!
Team Avatar manages to escape Kuvira’s Spirit Cannon blast and regroup to take down the colossal mecha. Despite their best efforts, the giant mecha and the Spirit Cannon remain unstoppable. Lin frees Hiroshi, Asami’s father, from prison to find a way to stop Kuvira’s army. Together with Asami and Varrick, Hiroshi devises a plan to stop the mecha – but it comes at a terrible cost.
“Day of the Colossus” is the twelfth Chapter (episode) of Book Four: Balance (Season Four) of The Legend of Korra. It is the penultimate episode of the series, and finds the entire cast of Legend of Korra uniting to defeat Kuvira and her invincible war machine. The entire battle takes place in Republic City, which is where the series started, and is a pretty awesome urban battle.
It’s also a team effort that manages to execute the plan to stop the mecha, though they don’t manage to do it without casualties. It’s an excellent display of the skill and power of our heroes as their combined efforts are impressive, but ultimately futile in the face of Kuvira’s mecha and Spirit Cannon.
Highlights
Mecha battle
The battle against the mecha is splendid. It proves its mettle (haha) by being impervious to almost any attack, and it just keeps going – nothing seems to be able to stop it. The fact that it’s made of platinum seems to be a copout to prevent the Metalbenders from doing anything to it, especially Kuvira has no problems controlling it from the inside. Still, giant robots attacking are always great set piece battles to watch.
Prince Wu defeats his own foes
The previous episode marks Prince Wu’s character growth and here he gets his own moment of awesome by defeating a small group of mechas and Earth Empire soldiers by himself. Granted, he doesn’t do it by Bending or anything physical, but rather through his wits, showing us that he does have the capability of becoming a great hero himself.
Hiroshi’s return
We’ve been watching Asami’s gradual forgiveness of Hiroshi throughout this season, and it finally bears fruit when they reconcile in this episode. The fact that they need aid from Hitoshi (one of Season 1’s antagonists) and that Korra needed to ask Zaheer (Season 3’s Big Bad) for help shows us just how lethal Kuvira is. And of course, Hiroshi’s fate is one that is both shocking and moving.
Varrick’s feelings for Zhu Li
Varrick pulls an unexpected move to show his love for Zhu Li, which is incredibly unorthodox but strangely appropriate given his character. It’s a welcome break in the action, and provides a great resolution to this quirky duo’s story.
Kuvira’s desperation
Because of the sheer power of the heroes stacked against her, you see Kuvira’s desperation in winning this battle, and her fear that she will not be able to. Her vulnerability here makes her more human, and shows us that the stakes for her, too, are high.
Protagonists join forces
As with the previous episode, this is an ensemble performance. To see our heroes working so well as a team, putting all differences aside in the defence of Republic City is both gratifying and amazing, and their synchronised attacks are a thing of beauty to watch. Not to mention, pure awesome as well.
Letdowns
Kuvira doesn’t engage in melee combat
It’s a minor quibble, really, but it would have been nice to see Kuvira engage in some physical fighting and remind us that she’s an incredible Metalbender (in addition to possessing a giant robot).
“Day of the Colossus” is a fantastic episode and an excellent lead-in into the series finale. The heroes have done their work to get our main characters into position, and now it’s time for the supporting cast to regroup and recover while Korra and her friends stop Kuvira. On to the series finale!
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