LOK: Battle Of Zaofu Review

Hey everyone. Here’s the review of the latest Korra episode. Sorry for the slight delay but there’s been some connectivity issues on my end. Enjoy!

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Suyin’s Plan

Honestly, Suyin’s plan to take out Kuvira came off as a little desperate. Maybe that’s due to how spectacularly it failed and you would’ve thought that Suyin – whose known Kuvira all her life – would’ve known she was smart enough to pull off that trick.

That’s not a complaint though because it does sorta suggest how desperate the situation is for Zaofu. She must know that Kuvira’s army would destroy Zaofu, so she resorts to our rather desperate last chance in the hopes of sending her army into chaos.

Granted, I didn’t like that the show handwaved the reason being that ‘she’s forcing them to join her army’ since we’ve not seen any proof of this. Oh I’m sure she is doing this, but like the supposed re-education camps and the Earth Nation towns I kinda wish we saw this than just heard about it. A bit more show and tell is needed there, but that’s a very minor nitpick.

Kuvira

Am I getting bored constantly praising Kuvira week after week? Pfft, of course not.

Only now do I realise just how similar Kuvira is in many respects to Azula. Oh she isn’t nearly as unhinged and their views on Monarchy couldn’t be more different...but damn, Kuvira is one fantastic manipulator. Almost never during this episode did Kuvira NOT feel in control of the situation, save for when Korra went into the Avatar State. Besides that she’s in full control of the situation and knows what to say and when to say it.

To give her some credit even after being attacked by its leader she doesn’t just straight up invade Zaofu. Instead she uses it for her own gain and forces the city to surrender. And when Korra tried to intervene, she instantly makes her look to be in the wrong by indirectly implying that she was interfering where she didn’t belong. Futhermore when Korra challenges her to a fight, she uses this to gain loyalty to her army by making her look willing to put her life at risk and fight side by side with them, which they all seem to admire her for (a bit contrary to Suyin’s claim though...).

As always, she is a great villain, in the same league as the likes of Azula and Zaheer.

Varrick The Magnificent

Good god, who DIDN’T have a blast watching Varrick this episode?

First off we see just how much he depended on Zhu Li to a most comical effect. It’s made very clear Zhu Li knew what Varrick wanted without him properly explaining it, but Bolin doesn’t and it leads to some very funny moments between them. On a tangent I’m actually quite glad Bolin and Varrick are still friends after the events of Book 2. I guess Varrick doesn’t begrudge what Bolin felt like he had to do there.

But yes, this was Varrick’s awesome episode. He reminds that behind all his eccentricities he is both a genius and a cunning manipulator, and he plays the entire trains passengers from beginning to end. It culminates in him rigging the spirit vines to blow up on a timer, and he threatens Bataar Jr. and his cronies to get off the train through the switch Varrick has made that will instantly blow up the vines...which he himself calls out made the timer useless.

Of course it wouldn’t be Varrick had it been completely rational, so of course he has no plan to switch off the spirit vines. It’s up to Bolin to save the both of them, and through their combined efforts they escape Bataar and destroy possibly all of Kuvira’s stash of spirit vines. Not bad for two guys who were previously prisoners.

But yes, Varrick was simultaneously badass, hilarious and his absolutely insane self. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

So Zhu Li...

Okay...maybe I’m not so sure now that she was lying to Kuvira. It did come off like that last episode, but I did sorta expect her to actually sneak on board the train this episode and help Varrick escape.

Now I’m not really committing to whether she meant it or not. At the moment it could go either way, though I still sorta lean towards her planning to double cross Kuvira eventually for whatever reason.

Meelo’s Picture



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Okay, that’s probably the funniest Meelo moment of the whole bloody series. Laughed my ass off at that, which is good because Meelo for the rest of the episode was a bit annoying.

Korra

Oh yes, this makes up for the whole forgotten metal cop out from the last episodes! During her fight with Kuvira she’s better than she was before...but she’s still off her game and is nowhere near as good as Kuvira. To say she has her ass handed to her on a plate would be an understatement.

It’s quite blatant that removing the last bit of metal was only the start of her recovery. She’s still mentally off her game and still far from recovered. One wonders whether returning to world affairs like this has only exasperated the problem for her due to her inability to help and her growing insecurity about her role in the world. Regardless she’s clearly far from recovered.

The best bit though? It’s when she goes into the Avatar State, knocks Kuvira back, gets ready to finish her off, Kuvira slowly gets back up, looks up, and sees...



That scene was perfect. It again reinforces the idea that everything wrong with Korra is mental now and that the figure is a personification of all her fear, anxiety and dread. It’s constantly holding her back and until she defeats it she will never be the Avatar she once was.

A very good friend of mine Lady-n-Gentlemen hypothesised that the series would end with Korra taking on Kuvira, and in Korra’s mind Kuvira would be replaced by the evil Korra. With this episode I’m very inclined to think this as well and it would be a perfect to finish off the series. I highly doubt it’s gonna be Vaatu showing up again like a few people feel it might be. Sorry but at this point it just wouldn’t work.

With Her Spirit Vines Possibly All Gone...

Do you think she might intend to invade Republic City? I’m playing with the idea and I see reasons why she would and wouldn’t do this. On the one hand there’s a massive source of spirit vines there for the taking which would make her army near unstoppable, and she could always claim that she’s retaking the city back as Earth Nation property since it was Earth Kingdom land before the Fire Nation invaded.

On the other hand though Kuvira’s conquest relied heavily on the other nations being stuck on interfering, but an attack on Republic City would make her an enemy of the entire world. Perhaps she feels she can do this with her new discovery. Regardless I’m very intrigued as to what Kuvira plans to do next.

Overall

Sorry for the briefness of this review, but to be honest not a lot of different things happened. What we got though was great and a fitting ending to the Zaofu conquest part of this season. Now though we’re gonna see just the season has for its third act and I am most intrigued to see how the season will evolve from there. Until next week guys!