Should you watch this, Wiki this, or wait for the recap? Watch this for the fights, but you can wait for the recap for the rest of the story.
Korra offers herself up in exchange for the life of all the captive Airbenders, only to find that Zaheer has double crossed her. An all-out battle begins between Zaheer’s forces and Korra’s allies, with both teams gaining new abilities in the heat of battle. Will Korra triumph or will Zaheer finally enact his sinister plot?
“Enter the Void” is the 11th Chapter (episode) of Book 3 (Season 3) of The Legend of Korra. It features the long awaited battle between Korra and Zaheer (but Korra’s handicapped this time, argh!), as well as slugfest between Team Zaheer and Team Avatar.
The bulk of this episode is mostly fighting, which means the series arc doesn’t quite move on. So if you want to know exactly what Zaheer was up to, skip to the last episode! If not, you can still watch this episode for the incredible display of Bending abilities seen here – both in terms of sheer skill and also in terms of ingenuity in battle.
Highlights
Bolin can Lavabend
Bolin has never been one of my favourite characters – he feels too much like a copy of Sokka. In any case, there’s been this long running subplot about Bolin’s inability to Metalbend, which got tired about 4 episodes ago. But we finally see why in this episode – Bolin can Lavabend! It makes sense, seeing as which his brother is a Firebender and hence, he has Firebender blood in his veins as well. Fire and earth make lava, so Bolin’s a Lavabender!
P’Li’s end
P’Li is defeated in an incredibly ingenious way, and by teamwork. Su Metalbends a piece of armour over P’Li’s head just as she Combustionbends, thus containing the explosion in her head. We don’t see the actual explosion of course (it would be far too gory for a kid’s show), but we see Zaheer’s reaction, and it leads into his acquisition of flight. Though Tenzin might have withstood a blast from P’Li in the previous episode, it wasn’t point blank and it wasn’t in the head, so it makes sense that P’Li blasting her own head would result in her death. Poor P’Li.
Lin and Su’s relationship
The aforementioned teamwork between Su and Lin begins when Lin seemingly sacrifices herself to distract P’Li, telling Su she loves her. Yes. Lin says “love” and to Su, no less. There’s no better resolution of their ongoing feud.
Foreshadowing of Zaheer’s flying abilities
Zaheer flies at the end! But it’s well set up, throughout the series in fact, when Zaheer repeatedly recites Guru Laghima’s mantra of “let go your earthly tether.” Literally, he can fly when the earth no longer tethers him, and emotionally, he can fly when he no longer as any attachments to the world once P’Li, his lover, dies. The payoff is well done when you realise that all of that set up has led to this moment.
Tonraq’s tentacled Waterbending
At least it’s not just Ming Hua who can make water tentacles! Wonder why Tonrag didn’t do this earlier, or did I just not realise he was tentacle Waterbending earlier?
Letdowns
Zaheer’s plot is unclear
It’s been 11 episodes, and still no sign of Zaheer’s plot! Yes, he wants to poison Korra with something weird, and it’s probably a sacrifice – but to what? We’ve had no build up of this so far, so if all the exposition is dumped in the final episode, it’s not going to be satisfying.
Heroes are defeated too easily
The bad guys are clearly outnumbered, but the heroes still barely manage to win this fight. Is P’Li really that powerful, that she can hold her own against an entire squad of Metalbenders and Su and Yin? Well, she’s gone now, so at least that was worth it.
“Enter the Void” makes for an apropos title when you realise that is exactly what Zaheer has done to achieve flight. It’s an action heavy episode, and every minute of animation is well worth it. Storywise, you could look elsewhere, but then you might as well be Wiking the whole series right?
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