Characters / The Legend Of Korra - Zaheer

The Legend of Korra Main Character Index
New Team Avatar (Avatar Korra, Asami Sato, Mako, Bolin) | Tenzin's Family | Beifong Family | Allies (Varrick and Zhu Li) | Seasons 1 & 2 Enemies (Amon) | Seasons 3 & 4 Enemies (Zaheer, Kuvira) | Past Characters | Other Characters | Comic Characters

This is a partial character sheet for The Legend of Korra. Subjective trope and audience reactions should go on the YMMV page.

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Zaheer

Voiced by: Henry Rollins

Voiced by (German): Ingo Albrecht

Voiced by (Brazilian Portuguese): Hélio Ribeiro

"When you base your expectations only on what you see, you blind yourself to the possibilities of a new reality."

^{Click here to see Zaheer with unkempt hair}

A formerly non-bender criminal and member of a society known as the Red Lotus who was arrested with his three cohorts for attempting to kidnap the Avatar. Having now gained airbending through Harmonic Convergence, he breaks his cabal out of their prisons and intends to finish what they started.

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#-K

• 11th-Hour Superpower: He manifests the ability to fly at the end of the penultimate episode of Book Three.
• Achilles' Heel: Zaheer unlocked the power of unlimited flight, which makes him one with the air. But that means he's at the mercy of the changing wind, so airbending will do him in.
• Affably Evil: Ultimately zigzagged between this and Faux Affably Evil. He's always civil and polite, even to his jailers. He also acts very nicely around Tenzin's children during his infiltration of Air Temple Island. He even honestly tells Korra a large amount of what his plan is, when she tries to interrogate him. Though this is partially to buy his associates time to kidnap her. However, as the season progressed and he started becoming desperate, his polite nature began to crack and it disappeared completely upon his final defeat where he devolves into a full blown rant. However, three years in jail seem to have mellowed him out and he's back to being Affably Evil. He even expresses genuine remorse when Korra reveals how badly he screwed things up and immediately agrees to help Korra set it right.
• All for Nothing:
  • Zaheer unlocks the one power Aang never did: Unaided flight, making him a very worthy airbender; but compared to Tenzin or Aang, he ultimately loses all of his loved ones while Aang and Tenzin had and have stable families and friends. He obtained ultimate power and a degree of enlightenment; but he lost all his friends in the process; so it means nothing.
  • Zaheer was a terrorist that believed the true path to humanity's freedom and salvation was to cause chaos that would kill the world leaders and end the nations. He and his friends assassinate the earth queen, start a revolution and cripple Avatar Korra, stopping her from stopping his revolution. Zaheer was captured and in prison, and his friends were killed. In three years, a well-organized military push brutally crushes Zaheer's anarchist revolution, and Kuvira has shown herself to be even worse than Hou-Ting ever was, which Korra calls him out on. All Zaheer's ideals about freedom though chaos were just that, ideals. This was actually foreshadowed when Asami and Bolin were playing Pai Sho in Book Three while staking Aiwei out. Bolin, who was playing fast-paced Pai Sho, lost pretty much every time to the strategic and calculating Asami (he nearly won once, but Pabu scattered the pieces). While chaos may be effective in the short term, order tends to win out in the long term, especially when safety is threatened.
  • During his time in the spirit world, he learns that decapitating the Earth Kingdom's leadership created a power vacuum filled by a dictator even worse than Hou-Ting, precisely the opposite of what he was trying to do. This realization causes him to help Korra fix his mess.
• Ambiguously Evil: Much like Amon, it's clear Zaheer is a villain. His level of villainy, however, is another matter entirely. Though he explains most of his plan to Korra, the full extent of it remains a mystery. It turns out, he wants to kill her while she's in the Avatar State, ending the Avatar cycle, because he feels the world needs to return to how it was before Wan became the Avatar in order to achieve true balance.
• Anarchy Is Chaos: It is taken for granted by our heroes that Zaheer is after global chaos. He does make some references to "chaos" in his philosophy, but he's really after the end of the nations.
• Anti-Villain: Genuinely cares about his friends and girlfriend, is good with kids, acts almost infallibly polite, and has a sincere interest in the Air Nomad culture and philosophy. His goal is to eliminate the leaders of the five nations and throw the world into chaos so that a new world can begin, but he comes across as one of the most human of the franchise's antagonists. He even helps Korra in "Beyond the Wilds" to overcome her fear of him.
• Arch-Enemy: Of all the villains, he comes the closest to being Korra's most personal foe. He attempted to kidnap her when she was a child, being the reason she spent most of her life locked away from the outside world. He came the closest to killing her, something that would haunt her for years. His actions also led to the events of season 4, something Korra would confront him on.
• Ascended Fanboy: A longtime student of airbending culture who gained the ability.
• Astral Projection: He can project his spirit into the Spirit World, which he uses to communicate with his operatives. It is likely he tracked Korra down through this method. In Book 4, he coaches Korra in getting over her spiritual block by making her face the moment he almost killed her.
• Badass Normal: Zaheer was a non-bender until Harmonic Convergence, but he was a master martial artist on par with the other three, so the Order of the White Lotus imprisoned him with as much caution as the benders he worked with.
• Bald Head of Toughness: Downplayed. Zaheer was considered so dangerous as a Badass Normal that he was imprisoned along with the bending members of the White Lotus and in jail, his hair is long and unkempt. However, due to the Convergence of the previous season, he gains the ability to airbend, making him formidable enough to challenge and almost kill Korra. After breaking out of prison, he shaves his head completely making him look quite similar to the Air Nomads whose philosophy he has an extensive knowledge of.
• Bald of Evil: Though he starts out unkempt, he shaves his head and beard later on, taking on a more airbender-like appearance. Three years later, after being locked away following his attempted poisoning of Korra, his hair has grown out to be unkempt again.
• Batman Gambit: Attempted by Zaheer when he talks to Korra in the Spirit World while Ming-Hua and Ghazan capture her defenseless body. The Earth Queen's forces derail the plan by kidnapping Korra themselves when Asami tries to take her to safety.
• Benevolent Boss: To the rest of his crew, whom he deeply respects and cares for. He goes out of his way to rescue each and every one of them. To any subordinate who proves to be a liability, not so much.
• Beware the Honest Ones: He's a polite, civil, philosophical, and one may even say kind man at first glance. But he is also a Bomb Throwing Anarchist who seeks to create social disorder and despite his code of honor, isn't above cold-blooded murder to get there. Both Aiwei and the Earth Queen learned this the hard way.
• Big Bad: He is the main villain of Book 3 as the leader of the Red Lotus, aiming to plunge the world into chaos.
• Bilingual Bonus: The name 'Zaheer' is one of the Names of Allah, and means 'that which is apparent/manifest/visible' (Az-Zahir). Likely meant to indicate his adherence to Guru Laghima's philosophy of seeing beyond what is immediately apparent.
• Blow You Away: He gained airbending through Harmonic Convergence.
• Break the Haughty: The realization that his assassination of Hou-Ting was all for nothing because it opened the way for Kuvira and her fascism has pounded some additional humility into him.
• Bullying a Dragon: His plan was to poison Korra, forcing her into the Avatar State to counteract it, and kill her to end the Avatar cycle permanently. Korra ends up breaking free of her chains (not even by bending, but just sheer strength alone) and nearly hands Zaheer his ass in her enraged Avatar state. He only survives due to Korra nearly dying from the poison. When his final attempt to kill her fails due to the airbenders' interference, Korra manages to grab hold of his leg and defeat him.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Played with. Zaheer is a seeker of chaos but believes it is the true path to humanity's freedom and salvation. However, he took considerable pleasure tormenting Korra just as she was about to die at his and his brethren's hands.
• Chaos Is Evil: Defied; he believes that chaos is neither good nor evil, but rather is the natural state of things, and that by creating chaos through the destruction of governments, a better world will rise from the ashes.
• Color Motif: He has a very noticeable preference for gray clothes, different from the brightly colored Air Nomad outfits but nonetheless consistent with how air is color coded.
  • It could also be seen as the colour of neutrality, hence balance, since he sees chaos as neither good nor evil.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • For Amon. Amon claimed to be a non-bender who, by chance, gained mystical powers that let him depower benders, up to and including the Avatar, for the benefit of non-benders, but in reality, was an exceptional waterbender seeking power for himself, and his "spiritual powers" turned out to be particularly nasty application of bloodbending. Zaheer, meanwhile, is actually a former non-bender, who actually got airbending powers (including one that hasn't been seen in 4000 years) by chance, and he actually believes in freeing the common people (bender and non-bender alike) from the Avatar, whom he sees as the ultimate authority figure. Nevertheless, both are equally ruthless and dangerous villains, and both manage to put Korra through a world of hurt in different ways.
  • To Unalaq. Both are spiritual in their own ways, but while Unalaq was prideful and wanted personal power, Zaheer is humble and has no interest in any authority beyond being the leader of his friends. Unalaq wanted to be a kind of dark mirror and replacement to the Avatar, but Zaheer wants to turn the clock back to an era when there was no Avatar.
• Cultured Badass: Is an avid student of airbending culture, quite knowledgeable about history, is well-spoken in general and infallibly polite to almost everyone he comes across, even enemies.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: He hands these out with alarming regularity. He almost effortlessly dispatches the Order of the White Lotus guards at his, Ghazan's, and Ming-Hua's prisons and does similarly well against the Dai Li. He ends up on the receiving end of one when he fights Tenzin in "The Ultimatum", where the vast disparity in their respective airbending experience becomes clear; Tenzin takes everything thrown at him without flinching and runs him down over the course of about half a minute. And he ends up on the receiving end of another one from Korra when she's in the Avatar State, showing why Bullying a Dragon is never a good idea.
• Defeat by Irony: Zaheer is a staunch anarchist, and believes in all sorts of freedom (freedom from kingdoms, freedom from the Avatar, etc). He also practices learning a technique to free him from the constraints of gravity. Ultimately, he is defeated when Korra pulls him down with her chain, and he is pinned by earthbending. This also only occurs after he is attacked by a tornado created by the entire newly formed Air Nation working together.
• Die or Fly: Quite literally in "Enter the Void". After P'Li is killed by Suyin and it looks like Zaheer's plans have completely fallen apart and he's about to be recaptured by Lin and Suyin, Zaheer quite calmly begins reciting the teachings of Guru Laghima and then falls backwards off the cliff... because P'Li's death has cut his last tie to the earth and he has achieved the ability of flight.
• The Dreaded: Zaheer is considered so dangerous, even while bound and chained, that he had to be kept in complete isolation—no one to bribe, bully, manipulate or blackmail. For this reason visiting him requires the approval of a head of state. Korra moreso is terrified of him since the events of season three, and Zaheer mockingly revels in his newfound status when Korra tries to face him. After she throws his failures in his face, however, he helps Korra get over her fear so she can fix the mess he helped cause.
• Ear Ache: Has cauliflower ear from a life of fighting.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Zaheer was a master martial artist and professional fighter before being imprisoned, and then he got airbending.
• Enemy Mine: While he and Korra were enemies before, their interests align when Korra visits him in prison. He helps her get over the fight she had with him, helping her get better so she could stop Kuvira, who Zaheer also sees as a threat to the world.
• Enlightened Antagonist: Highly spiritual, gained airbending and virtually mastered it in two weeks. He's also a terrorist.
• Enlightenment Superpowers: He achieves Guru Laghima's power of flight through intense meditation and severing his earthly bonds, including any value he had for his own life.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He genuinely cares for his friends and his lover P'Li, personally leading the attempt to break them out of their jails. Her death strikes him with grief, though it also allows him to let go of all earthly attachments to achieve flight.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He despises tyrants such as the Earth Queen and Fire Lord Ozai. Befitting his hatred of tyrannical dictators, he has no fondness for Kuvira, is not happy to learn that his actions played a part in bringing Kuvira to power, and actually helps Korra regain her power in order to give her a better shot at stopping her.
  • Believes that Unalaq's attempt to become a Dark Avatar was selfish.
  • After he kills the Earth Queen and is trying to announce the deed to the people, Ming-Hua threatens the operator when he's a bit hesitant. Zaheer immediately calls her out on this, telling her it goes against what they stand for.
• Evil Counterpart: Zaheer is clearly meant to be an evil version of Aang who can only airbend and doesn't give a damn about bringing balance to the world by pacifistic means, even having no qualms resorting to murder to get his way.
• Evil Genius: He's the group's strategist and coordinates all of their plans.
• Evil Laugh: For a blatant Anti-Villain, he gives a surprisingly good one (the wiki actually calls it a "cackle") when it seems Korra will soon die from the poison in her system.
• Evil Mentor: He shows some shades of this when he teaches Korra how to enter the spirit world again. Zaheer does it because he wants Kuvira in the ground as much as Korra does.
• Evil Virtues: Polite, thoughtful, honest, brave, philosophical, honorable, determined, apparently good with kids, loyal to his friends, loves his girlfriend. If it wasn't for the fact that he seeks to create social disorder (which, one should bear in mind, he genuinely believes is a good thing), let alone the increasingly ruthless methods he employs in the completion of said goal, it would be near impossible to look at him and think "villain".
• Ex-Big Bad: In Book 4, he returns to the plot despite no longer being the Big Bad or even an antagonist at all. Korra confronts him to overcome the trauma she faced at the end of Book 3, and he helps her so that she can defeat Kuvira, who serves as the antithesis of everything he stands for.
• The Fettered: Despite being The Unfettered during Book 3, in Book 4, when Korra reveals that him killing the Earth Queen only gave rise to an even worse tyrant in Kuvira, he expresses genuine remorse for his actions and helps Korra to break through her trauma and enter the Spirit World, reuniting Korra with Raava and granting her access to the full power of her Avatar State.
• Flight: When P'Li dies, he loses his last attachment to the Earth, allowing him to achieve enlightenment and master the power of flight. This also allows him to command the winds he leaves in his wake, battering Korra even in the Avatar State.
• Foil: For Tenzin. Whereas Aang's son is the oldest living airbender master, Zaheer is one of the newest airbenders. Both studied the Air Nomads but for different reasons. Tenzin studied them out of a sense of duty since for the brief time after the death of his father and the birth of his children, he was the last airbender. Zaheer chose to study them for their belief in freedom. Both studied so that they could mentor the next Avatar. Even the way they fight is different; Tenzin is graceful, relies on extensive and often elaborate attacks, while Zaheer uses a brute force version of airbending which he seems to mix with martial arts. Both even have a significant other, who they are attached to in different ways.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: His fascination with Air Nomad culture can be seen as this as he didn't become an airbender until the events of Book 3. Inkeeping with this trope, he tends to have a rather skewed view of it and twists certain aspects, most notably the renowned airbending Guru Laghima, to fit them into or justify his worldview and philosophy. A lot of it seems based around the fact that air is the element of freedom, with Zaheer downplaying or ignoring the fact that the Air Nomads still possessed a loose system and structure of government and leadership as well as a very strict moral code against the use of violence. It comes back to bite him as he cannot resist showing off his knowledge of the culture whilst posing as a new acolyte, which tips off Kya that he's more than he claims to be.
• Friendly Enemy: He tries to pull this with Korra, but only to buy time to capture her. He's more genuine during their meeting in Book 4 (even if he started out with Brutal Honesty), helping her recover from injuries he gave her, and encourages her to grow stronger.
• Full-Contact Magic: Though technically true of all bending, Zaheer's airbending deserves special mention because of how different it is from traditional airbending. Unlike the graceful, sometimes dance-like motions favored by other airbenders, Zaheer commands the air with punches, kicks, air grapples, and a whole assortment of other martial arts moves that have more in common with hyper-offensive firebending moves. It's justified as Zaheer is self-taught and therefore is not using "proper" airbending, and is implied to have been a Badass Normal before getting airbending. Ultimately, his self-taught airbending is no match for Tenzin, who is a legitimate master in the skill and has the benefit of an airbending style that has had ages of refinement and optimization.
• Genius Bruiser: Zaheer is a powerful and seasoned fighter who looks the part, but also a poetic and spiritually knowledgable man who knows a good deal about the avatar and the world.
• Godzilla Threshold: Zaheer considers Korra visiting him in prison this by stating that she must be truly desperate and out of options to seek his counsel.
• Good Powers, Bad People: Airbending is without a doubt the least offense-based bending, but Zaheer is anything but defensive in his use of it. It's taken a step further in "Long Live The Queen", where he uses airbending to bend the air out of the Earth Queen's lungs to suffocate her; a feat never seen before in either series and a stark contrast to the pacifist philosophy of Air Nomads. He also has a twisted interpretation of airbending philosophy.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has an 'x'-shaped scar on the back-left side of his head. He also has a small one on his left eyebrow.
• Hannibal Lecture:
  • Gives a rather chilling one to the White Lotus guard bringing him his rice, before locking him in the cell he used to inhabit.
  • When he is again locked up and chained in book 4, and Korra comes to see him, he does a more nuanced version of this. It has all the usual insightful comments and the sense that the captive has more power in the situation than the interrogator, but the end result is not to break her spirit. Instead, he seeks to heal her spirit so she can return to full power and take down a mutual enemy.
• Humble Hero: Inverted. Zaheer is the Big Bad of Book 3, but has humility. When he made his speech to the people of Ba Sing Se about how he had liberated them from their tyrant queen and was returning the city to them, he refused to identify himself, nor take over Ba Sing Se and change it himself. "My identity is not important". Also, he certainly believes himself to be a hero even though he is not.
• Hypocrite:
  • He calls Ming-Hua out for threatening a radio operator by saying that they do not harm the innocent, but previously had no objection to her doing the same to an innocent truck driver in "Old Wounds". To be fair, the latter was done out of necessity since there was a city-wide manhunt for them, and the driver was allowed to run once it was clear they would be exposed.
  • He goes on and on about how people should attain their own freedom and be unbound by cultural norms or the whims of others, but he's equally willing to restrain and imprison others against their will for as long he deems them a threat to his plans.
  • Despite his distaste of world leaders and governments, he apparently had no problem with working with Unalaq, who was a world leader as the Chief of the Northern Water Tribe after betraying his brother and was the one who ordered Zaheer and his crew to kidnap Korra which led to their imprisonment. It's most likely Unalaq's betrayal of the Red Lotus is what solidified Zaheer's distaste of all world leaders.
  • Despite his claims of admiring Air Nomad culture, he shows no qualms with threatening or damaging it beyond any hope of restoration. He threatens to kill all the new airbenders to lure Korra to him with no indication of it being a bluff, was willing to murder Tenzin (the only airbending master in the world) and had no issues with Ghazan completely destroying the Northern Air Temple in trying to kill the rest of Team Avatar.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Once he shaves, he looks quite a bit like the real◊ Henry Rollins.
• Instant Expert:
  • He's been an airbender for all of two weeks, yet bends like a master. He was also able to fly around with ease the moment he achieved enlightenment. It's implied he's a dedicated student of Air Nomad culture, so he likely memorized much of the lore and just started applying it, once he gained the power. Also, he spent over a decade in a cell so he had little else to do. Despite his natural talent, however, his fight with Tenzin proves that intuition is no substitute for experience, and his fight with Kya shows how dependent he is on the obscurity of his abilities.
  • This is zigzagged in the final two episodes of season three, as he achieves the power of weightlessness and flight - an aspect of Airbending thought lost to time. He becomes so proficient at it that alongside poisoning Korra to induce the Avatar State, he's able to fight her on almost even ground and even Tenzin is doubtful he can be overcome.
• Ironic Hell: This is how he sums up his book 4 imprisonment. Having now realized Zaheer can fly, the White Lotus have now hidden him deep in a mountain and fettered him in chains. In Zaheer's own words, he's finally obtained the power of flight, but now is forever bound to the ground. However, this is nothing compared to everything else he has lost. He also realizes the irony in killing the Earth Queen, only to create a more insane tyrant in Kuvira.
• Just Between You and Me: He engages in this with Korra in "The Stakeout", believing she at least deserves to know why they're after her. It also serves to keep her in the spirit world while his friends capture her. When it comes to why they specifically need her to enact their plan, however, he refuses to answer that.
• Kick the Dog: In "Venom of the Red Lotus", he gloats about Korra's imminent death in front of her father and friends. His very serious threat to exterminate the Air Nomads for good just as they're finally beginning to recover also counts as this.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Two instances of this occur, but they come off as double-edged swords. On one hand, the victims' deaths can be cheered upon, but on the other hand, they showcase Zaheer's ruthlessness and brutality along with demonstrating that the Red Lotus is done playing games at that point in the story.
  • While the "son of a bitch" in this case isn't the most vile of examples, Aiwei was a traitor and so hardly the most sympathetic of individuals.
  • Inflicted this on the Earth Queen, which was met with rejoicing in-universe. Korra on the other hand is only angry at the fact that Zaheer went too far as opposed to the Queen's death.
• The Kingslayer: Being a Bomb Throwing Anarchist, he absolutely hates authority figures and is personally responsible for killing Hou-Ting. He and his friends also beat Tenzin, the De Facto leader of the New Air Nation, within an inch of his life.
• Kill the God: His ultimate plan for Korra, since the Avatar is the world's most important protector and an agent of Order. He almost succeeds.
• Knight Templar: He believes that the key to global freedom and peace is to destroy the world's governments and the boundaries between nations, throwing the world to "natural disorder". He is, of course, ruthless in his methods, having no qualms with cold-blooded murder, kidnapping a little girl (later he claims that he didn't plan to harm her, but his ultimate plan does involve her death), throwing one of his associates into what amounts to Hell, and asphyxiating a defenseless woman. It's best demonstrated in "The Ultimatum", where he is willing to commit genocide on the new Air Nation, something that is made clear that he isn't happy about, but will do regardless. His plan with Korra is to kill Korra during the Avatar State, ending the Avatar Cycle, to rid the world of kings and queens, and even the Avatar stands in his way.

L-Y

• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Inverted. Zaheer has a jaw that any superhero would be proud of, but he's very much a villain in spite of his best intentions.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Gets hit with this hard.
  • After he attempted to kill Korra's father and break his deal of sparing the airbenders, his girlfriend P'li is killed during the ensuing battle.
  • His other two friends, Ghazan and Ming-Hua die after they forced Korra into the Avatar state by poisoning her, and they were defeated by Mako and Bolin.
  • After gaining airbending from Harmonic Convergence and threatening to wipe out the other new airbenders, they work together to create a cyclone that he can't fly out of and carry Korra at the same time.
  • The same chains that he used to imprison Korra are later used by Korra to grab his leg and defeat him which lead to his capture.
  • Between killing the Earth Queen and his poison incapacitating Korra for three years, he finds out that his actions have caused the rise of a worse dictatorship in the Earth Kingdom rather than spreading freedom.
  • He gained the ability of flight, but he is bound in chains and incapable of being any higher than a few feet.
  • Even though he attempted to kill Korra, he helps her overcome her fear and accept what happened to her, so she can defeat Kuvira, the dictator who came into power as a result of his own actions. This allows Korra to finally finish her recovery, and Korra admits that finally being able to move on will make her stronger than ever which was the opposite of what Zaheer originally wanted.
• The Leader: Given Zaheer's own beliefs, he probably wouldn't refer to himself as such, but he's the front-man for his gang and they follow his lead.
• Lethal Harmless Powers: Zaheer shows that airbending's lethal potential is dependent on the person's willingness to kill, as demonstrated when he suffocated the Earth Queen.
• A Lighter Shade of Black:
  • He's this to the Earth Queen, or so he claims. Granted, his goals to eliminate every government in the world have grave consequences, but he's far more sympathetic than the animal-hating, child-abusing, despotic Earth Queen. His hatred of tyrants like her is quite legitimate, because she robbed people of their freedom, detains them without trial, and cares for no one but herself. Zaheer, on the other hand wants to give people freedom and has people he cares about, especially the love of his life, whom he saved from cruel subjugation. Zaheer is aware of the consequences of his actions, yet deems them necessary for a good cause. By contrast, the Earth Queen was always without conscience and unrepentant to the end.
  • He is also this to Kuvira in Book 4, whom both he and Korra consider worse than the Earth Queen ever was, thus creating an Enemy Mine situation.
  • By extension, he views Korra as this to Kuvira. While he believes the Avatar Cycle needs to end and disagrees with her views, he recognizes that Korra herself is a decent person who was simply born into circumstances he considers restricting to the world, something that she can't really change or control. In contrast, Kuvira is actively working to set up a fascist dictatorship with herself as its architect.
• Mighty Glacier: In comparison to the other airbenders Zaheer is most definitely the slow -and-mighty type and this is made most obvious during his battle with Tenzin who outclasses him in every way. Zaheer focuses on crushing, aggressive blows with his airbending while Tenzin is able to gracefully dodge everything thrown at him. Not only that but their maneuverability without gliders is completely different, Zaheer uses his airbending to increase the distance for his jump which, while effective against other benders, puts him at a disadvantage to Tenzin who is able to bend the air around him into a lift allowing him to quickly counter attack. This extra manoeuvrability gives Tenzin the edge in battle and allows him to mop the floor with Zaheer (until the other Red Lotus members gang up on him). However, once Zaheer unlocks the ability of Flight he upgrades into a Lightning Bruiser.
• The Mole: He passes himself off as a new airbender wishing to join the Air Nomads, but is foiled when Kya notices that his skill and knowledge are too extensive for someone who recently discovered it. He may not have gotten Korra's location as planned, but he got away with Guru Laghima's locket.
• Muggle with a Degree in Magic: Zaheer was a nonbender expert on airbending, but when he first appears he's just been granted airbending powers. Convenient to not have to spend years mastering them.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Korra reveals how his assassination of the Earth Queen allowed despotic dictator Kuvira to rise to power, he is subtly but still visibly disturbed.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: Played with. Zaheer will avoid hurting innocents if possible, and specifically calls Ming-Hua on doing it without just cause, but he isn't above doing so if it's necessary to accomplish his goals. He also acknowledges the chaos his own actions will cause, but believes this to be necessary to create a better world.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Claims to be this to Korra by citing that, like her, he wants to restore peace and balance to the world. He also agrees with her decision to keep the spirit portals open. While Korra concedes on a personal level that he has a point, she finds his methods to be too extreme.
• Order Versus Chaos: On the side of chaos, seeing it as the natural state of existence for the world and the only way to provide the world with freedom. He also believes that the ones who impose order, the leaders of the world, are usually the ones who end up doing the most harm.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He kills the Earth Queen while lecturing her on her treatment of her citizens.
• Pet the Dog: Several.
  • He compliments Meelo on being a good airbending teacher.
  • While he and the Red Lotus threaten a truck driver, they allow him to run when the police insist on searching the truck.
  • Stops Ming-Hua from harming a radio worker, saying that their goal is to help the oppressed, not hurt them.
  • In Book 4, he helps Korra get over her spiritual block after being told how much he screwed things up.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Before making his escape and showing off his newfound airbending abilities, he gloats to the guard watching over him:
  Zaheer: When you base your expectations only on what you see, you blind yourselves to the possibilities of a new reality.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Delivers a fantastic one to Hou Ting before suffocating her.
  Zaheer: Maybe I forgot to mention something to you. I don't believe in queens.
  • He delivers another one to display his distaste for authority figures when he tries to kill Tonraq, chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe, by flinging him off a cliff.
  Zaheer: Say hello to the Earth Queen for me!
• Pure Is Not Good: He "lets go his Earthly tether" and achieves the lost Airbending ability of weightlessness through enlightenment, but he's still focused on his goals of anarchy and destroying the Avatar.
• Pyrrhic Victory: He kills the Earth Queen, instigates a revolution in Ba Sing Se that spreads throughout the Earth Kingdom, and cripples Korra by poisoning her. However, Zaheer is now once again imprisoned, his friends and lover are dead, the Red Lotus are no longer a secret, and Korra is still alive, but put out of commission for a long recovery. Three years later, his revolution has been crushed by a military dictatorship in every way worse than the cruel queen he killed, and with Korra still recovering, Team Avatar disbanded, and the Airbenders proving ineffective, there's no one to fix things. Korra throws this in his face when she confronts him in "Beyond the Wilds".
• Real After All: Guru Laghima's true flight was never achieved by any airbender for the 4,000 years after his death, and most regarded it as a myth, even among the Air Nomads themselves. Zaheer proves that it is indeed possible.
• Right Makes Might: He believes his being given airbending after the Harmonic Convergence is a sign that his cause is a righteous one.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Zaheer is able to track Korra through meditation, though later revelations suggest he was actually communicating with Aiwei at the time.
• The Shrink: In Season 4 when Korra comes to him to try and overcome her PTSD, he reaches out to her and genuinely helps her recover fully so she can battle Kuvira.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: After his plans completely fall apart at the end, Zaheer rants that the Red Lotus's goals cannot be stopped until Bolin quite literally stuffs a sock down his throat.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Though sadist would be a bit of a stretch, the way he kills the Earth Queen while giving her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech best exemplifies this.
• Sole Survivor: He's the only member of the core Red Lotus to survive Book 3. He also has the distinction of being the first main villain not to die at the end of the season.
• Stealth Pun: After spending most of the season obsessing over weightlessness and flying, part of his defeat involves being quite literally dragged down to earth. He later lampshades that he can fly, but he's bound to earth.
• Stout Strength: Is quite muscular, but is a skilled martial artist and with monkey-like agility.
• Tailor-Made Prison: He was locked up in a secluded prison high up on a mountain, with a door that must be opened by a Metalbender. Unfortunately, none of the guards accounted for him suddenly gaining airbending, which he uses to bust himself out. Zaheer later gets imprisoned again after the events of Book 3, this time inside a large cavern inside a mountain that requires multiple Metalbenders to lower an elevator into the chamber. While he's still capable of flight, both his arms and legs are chained to the ground, limiting his movements greatly.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Averted; he uses this to his advantage by telling Korra the Red Lotus's plans, while his allies go to capture Team Avatar.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Zaheer seems to be of average height; nonetheless, he's noticeably shorter than his lover, P'Li, who is stated to be 6'8.
• Token Flyer: He becomes this to the Red Lotus after he gains the power of flight.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Zaheer unlocks an advanced airbending technique when P'Li is killed, which severs his last earthly tether, enabling flight.
• Übermensch: Zaheer is a good candidate, he is an admirer of the culture of air nomads and much of his philosophy is inspired by that of an airbender monk, yet he has rejected the pacifism of air nomads and has become an Well-Intentioned Extremist who believes that the world will only know true freedom if all hierarchy and authority figure is abolished, even if it is through violence.
• Underestimating Badassery: He thought the Red Lotus could kill the Avatar by forcing her into the Avatar State via poison and a lava pit. Korra responds by resisting the poison for much longer than Zaheer expected and when the Avatar State is finally triggered, she goes full-on angry-god-beast against the Red Lotus. He only survives because of the poison hindering her. When he returns in "Beyond the Wilds", he admits that Korra has far more power than even she realizes if she could survive the poison.
• The Unfettered: He never once shows any remorse for his actions, and goes to increasingly ruthless extents to achieve them. In a more literal sense, he strives to achieve Guru Laghima's greatest skill — the power of flight — which requires forsaking all earthly attachments. When he finally succeeds after P'Li is killed, this also sends him to his most ruthless point.
• Unholy Matrimony: He and P'Li are involved, even sharing a kiss after the latter is broken out of prison.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Zig-Zagged; it'd be more accurate to say he's Unskilled, But Aggressive. As mentioned in Full-Contact Magic, Zaheer doesn't have the finesse that other airbenders do, thanks to only recently gaining the ability. To make up for it, he's a lot more vicious and direct in his attacks than the typical airbender, and he's very aware that airbending, unlike the other disciplines, is relatively rare and thus few know how to defend themselves against it, something that came back to bite him when he fought Kya, who does know how to counter Airbending. His lack of genuine technique is painfully obvious when he fights Tenzin in "The Ultimatum"; not only is Tenzin an airbender himself, negating Zaheer's normal advantage, he has decades of experience on Zaheer, absolutely mopping the floor with him until the rest of the Red Lotus joins the fight.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His killing of the Earth Queen only allowed Kuvira, a much worse tyrant, to take over the Earth Kingdom.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • While coming across as somewhat pretentious, his speech to his guards about Guru Laghima's teachings are a very valid message; that you are only truly restricted by our own perceptions and instincts. The fact that no one expected him to gain airbending only added to the sheer irony.
  • He even has a point about how the leaders of the world are often unfit to rule, such as the war-mongering Fire Lords - one of whom ordered the genocide of the original Air Nomads - the incompetent Raiko, and the tyrannical Earth Queen. Given all that has happened as a result, he was ultimately wrong about one thing—in the end, people did need someone to protect them and look after them for safety.
  • The Earth Queen is a despot and her people would definitely be better off with her deposed. Unfortunately, Zaheer gets rid of her via assassination, which simply creates a vacuum for Kuvira, an even worse dictator, to fill.
  • By Book 4, he tells Korra that constantly blaming him won't make her problems go away, and it especially won't help her move past her spiritual block.
• Villainous Breakdown: He starts losing it once Korra is safe and the poison is removed from her body. He goes on about how the revolution has already begun and that chaos is the natural order. Bolin stuffs a sock in his mouth to get him to shut up. Come Book 4, however, he's accepted his failure and learned to live with it, even helping Korra get over her own issues.
• Villainous Cheekbones: They're quite pronounced.
• Villainous Legacy: His actions during book 3 set the stage for book 4. He is disheartened to learn that his legacy is a more oppressive dictatorship than the one he cut down. His actions have haunted Korra for 3 years, rendering her unable to use the Avatar state, and the murder of the Earth Queen allowed Kuvira to step in and become an even worse tyrant. As for the Red Lotus, they still live on—they may not have returned during those three years, but the world leaders know they will return.
• Villainous Valor:
  • Prior to gaining airbending, Zaheer was just a normal person who managed to gain the trust of three powerful benders (as well as win the heart of one) and lead them on a mission to kidnap the Avatar. Even after gaining airbending, Zaheer is on the front lines with his cabal, personally breaking each of them out of prison and leading them on their renewed mission. Simply put, Zaheer is a villain, but he's not a coward.
  • When confronted by Korra, he admits that he is indirectly responsible for Kuvira's rise to power, and helps Korra to get past her trauma and reach her full spiritual potential.
• Villain with Good Publicity: He achieves this after he murders the Earth Queen. The people of the Earth Kingdom cheer him on for toppling their tyrant. In a bit of a twist, Zaheer specifically avoids giving his name, instead emphasizing that their freedom is more important. To the President and the United Republic, as well as everyone else, he and the Red Lotus are terrorists.
• Vocal Dissonance: His voice sounds far younger than his appearance would suggest. Similar to the Reality Is Unrealistic case of Dante Basco voicing Iroh II, Henry Rollins was in his fifties at the time of recording his lines. It certainly fits a lot better once he's shaved his beard and head.
• Visionary Villain: He forsees a world made truly free and purified of all corruption. He just has to crash every government on the planet to do so.
• Warrior Poet: His first scene shows him reciting airbender philosophy, he regularly meditates along its lines and he's also described as such in supplementary materials.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Zaheer takes his gift of airbending as a sign that the group's cause, overthrowing the world's governments, assassinating world leaders, and bringing in a new, individualist society, is righteous. When Ming-Hua gets rough with a radio operator, he scolds her and says that their purpose is to help civilians like him.
• Wicked Cultured: He's well-versed in Air Nomad poetry, history and lore.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: A rare villainous example - he seems to assume that humans will automatically form a utopian society as soon as those pesky rulers are out the way, and as such, his plans are missing a crucial step between "destabilize the world's political system" and "utopia arises from the ashes". This ultimately bites him in the ass in a major fashion in Book 4, as the power vacuum following the Earth Queen's assassination is ultimately filled by Kuvira, who is an even worse tyrant than the Queen - the exact opposite of what he wanted - and Korra, the only person who could have stopped the anarchy that gave rise to Kuvira, is too busy struggling with PTSD to oppose her...again, because of Zaheer. Oops.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Deftly maneuvers around obstacles to his capturing Korra, formulating plans which incorporate the unexpected.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Says this to Korra in Book 4. Rather than agree with Korra's sentiment that Zaheer himself is holding her back from healing herself, he believes her power is far greater than she realizes and her only barrier is herself.
• You Have Failed Me: He throws Aiwei's spirit into the Fog of Lost Souls for failing to help his team secure Korra and for being a potential liability. The latter turned out to be true when Korra tracked him down.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: To Aiwei. It turns out he also planned to do this to Korra if the Red Lotus had managed to capture her the first time.

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"The revolution has already begun! Chaos is the natural order of all—mmph!"

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