The Legend of Korra: Beyond the Wilds & Operation Beifong

You get a double serving this time because frankly, I still haven’t figured out how to keep up with three (or more) weekly series at once. In other words, the effort is kind of killing me, so yeah, let’s consolidate when all else fails. It’s probably for the best, anyway. “Beyond the Wilds” is an important and well-crafted episode, but it doesn’t offer much in the way of discussion beyond Korra’s struggles to overcome the trauma still holding her back.

For that, Korra needs to face what caused that trauma in the first place, something she came close to doing in “The Calling,” but only long enough to remove the last of the metal poison in her body. She’s been inflating the value of each step towards recovery, believing or wishfully thinking that step means she’s fully recovered. And one thing that’s always held her back is the tendency to give up something for lost if it’s not perfect the first time. When she confronts the imprisoned Zaheer, only to discover he still terrifies her, she too easily declares herself a hopeless cause, even when Zaheer thinks otherwise: “You say your powers are limited; I say they’re limitless.”

Zaheer expresses no remorse for his past actions; his regret over Kuvira taking control of the Earth Kingdom may be a kind of penitence, but can just as easily suit his anti-establishment philosophy. Nevertheless, he’s partly redeemed by his efforts to help Korra essentially get over him, which is fitting for the most complicated of her antagonists in this show. Unlike Kuvira, you feel like there’s still more to explore in Zaheer—now, when it’s too late to really do much else with him.

As for Kuvira, despite proceeding on her predictably destructive path (and turning her eyes on Republic City), she isn’t so much the primary concern as is the unforeseeable effects of her spirit vine harvesting. At the top of “Beyond the Wilds,” a tourist pokes at a spirit vine, only for it to poke back and then some, which is a good metaphor for what’s happening in the world, both physical and spiritual. Although Korra fails to gain the alliance of any spirit, her impassioned meeting with them will surely bear fruit when the moment is ripe.

“Operation Beifong” is by far the more interesting episode, not only because the bending action is so plentiful and so thrillingly choreographed, Suyin and Kuvira’s one-on-one being an especial standout. This is even more remarkable when you consider that every player involved has the exact same type of bending; to be able to achieve such variation in skill and style within that defined framework speaks to a high level of inspired animation.

Of course, I won’t deny that Toph’s return is another major factor in the episode’s favor. Her acerbic attitude provokes great responses from everyone around her,* and the fact that she’s in no way intimidated or infuriated by Kuvira is just great.** Moreover, she brings back the Beifong family drama, which has been the most reliable source of drama for the series for the last two seasons. In some ways, Lin’s hostilities with Suyin and Toph represent the most developed relationships the show has borne. While Lin may directly state her resentment against her mom (“You make me furious, and you don’t even know why. And when I tell you, you don’t care!”), but underneath lies a lot of unspoken tension that you can see just in the way Toph, Lin, and Suyin are. While the final reconciliation between Lin and Toph at the end of the episode arises without actually resolving the issues between them, perhaps the fact that they all stick their necks out for each other is enough.

If nothing else, this episode drives the plot right up to the final confrontation with Kuvira, which looks like it’s going to be massive, with both the Fire Nation and Republic City as sovereign allies, the Spirit World on call, and everyone else we care about ready to stick it to the would-be dictator in their own way. Zhu Li has already revealed her unsurprising double-agent role (and gets the special pleasure of telling Kuvira, “You’re a monster. I regret nothing.) and even Bataar must be waking up to the fact that things with his fiancée are getting out of control after he nearly kills his sister with the spirit vine cannon. That Kuvira will fall is inevitable; but we’re bound to get some epic scenes along the way.

Some Musings:

* Her response to Bolin’s hero worship of her: “What—you have to pee or something?”

“Uh, no! Well, now, maybe.”

** Notice that even Kuvira can’t pull herself together long enough to counterattack after Toph knocks a whole battalion to the ground.

– I don’t know whether it’s Wing or Wei that affectionately pats Bolin on the cheek after he catches him in his arms, but either way, it’s the closest thing to a homoerotic caress a cartoon can get—besides Asami and Korra’s hug in “Reunion.”

– Always ready to disappoint, Prince Wu undermines his one sensible suggestion of the entire series by revealing it’s all to win a date with Korra. I’m ready for him to be a casualty of war now.