Should you watch this, Wiki this, or wait for the recap? Watch the last 3 minutes, then Wiki the rest.
Korra thinks back to the past three years and her arduous healing journey. Her ardous road to recovery has been hampered by hallucinations of her Avatar self, and Korra has sought ways and means to quell these delusions. Her quest leads her to the Spirit World and some spiritual guidance, culminating in a meeting with one of the greatest Metalbenders the world has ever known.
“Korra Alone” is the second Chapter (episode) of Book Four: Balance (Season Four) of The Legend of Korra. While the first episode showed us how much the other characters had accomplished in the three years between Book Three and Book Four, this episode is all about Korra’s experiences in her past three years. It takes the form of a flashback, condensing Korra’s misery into a one episode.
It’s a solemn episode that explains how Korra went from a wheelchair to being an underground MMA fighter, and also features the stars from the parent series, The Last Airbender. Yet it feels overly done, overly focused on Korra – while she may be the star of the show, there’s little actual plot advancement. It’s all exposition and background story here. If you like that sort of thing, more power to you, but if not, you can Wiki it like normal people do.
Highlights
Toph
This is a spoiler, and she only appears for a minute or so, but yay! After seeing her two daughters, we finally get to see what happened to Toph. We’ve seen Katara and Zuko’s fate, we know that Aang passed away before the series began, and now the series comes full circle with Toph being the last Bender from the previous series to appear.
Katara’s guidance
Although her voice actress sounds a little strange, and not too much like Katara, we do see how her maternal side developed until she became the healing matriarch that she is. I would have liked to see her Bloodbend Korra into recovery, but that’s out of character, and it’d have been too easy a resolution for the episode.
The contrast between Korra and Team Avatar
Korra, who’s so used to being in control and being the most powerful in the group, now finds herself virtually helples and the least accomplished of Team Avatar. Knowing her pride and competitiveness, this must have been a terrible blow to her, and probably a major contributor to her Avatar hallucinations.
Letdowns
Lack of action
Besides Korra vs Korra, there’s little other action. It’s kind of disappointing, given that I expected a decent level of action for the series. Then again, it would have detracted from the mood of the story, so I can see why it was omitted.
Melancholic atmosphere
It starts off solemn and never lets up. It’s a heavy, depressing episode, and the problem is the lack of variation. True, it drives home how much Korra is suffering, but it’s overkill. Half of the episode would have been more than sufficient to highlight Korra’s depression.
Korra is too passive and whiny
I understand that she’s in a wheelchair and all, but really? After all we’ve seen of her indomitable spirit, this is a far cry from the Korra we knew. I daresay it’s almost out of character. And that is the problem – Korra doesn’t come across as pitiful, she comes across as a whiny brat. That’s not good for the heroine of the story.
Timing of events is unclear
When things happen in relation to the first episode also isn’t very clear, especially with regards to the meeting with Tenzin and subsequently, Toph. Some more references to the events of the previous episode would have helped immensely.
“Korra Alone” is not going to leave you a happy camper. It does underscore the significance of Korra’s injuries, but at the expense of everything else that makes The Legend of Korra such a great show to watch. Hope it bucks up before the series ends!
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