Headscratchers / The Legend of Korra - Book Three

Headscratchers pertaining to Book 3 of The Legend of Korra. Return to the index for more.

New Air Nomad culture

• Why was it necessary for the new airbenders to live the old air nomad lifestyle? Learn air nomad history and observe some of the traditions (like the air acolytes are already doing), sure—by all means. But is it necessary to keep air nomad culture stuck in the old ways when every other culture has evolved and modernized?
  • It wasn't. Tenzin was just stuck on the idea because that's what he grew up learning from Aang.
  • While I definitely agree that a big part of it was Tenzin's own adherence to the old ways, there is a practical reason for following the traditions: Bending is at least partly spiritual. The Air Nation is the only nation where 100% of its members are benders, and the given reason for this is their spirituality. By contrast the Earth Nation is the least spiritual, and they have the lowest number of benders per capita. Also when Avatar Kyoshi's mother, an airbender, left her people and became a criminal her powers weakened. So it's likely that you can't truly rebuild the Air Nation without also adopting the teachings of the Air Nomads.

How did Harmonic Convergence give people airbending?

• I can't remember if they ever really explained this. What is it that gave people airbending? The power of the spirits living in the real world? A great cosmic energy set off by Harmonic Convergence that somehow affects people and gives them bending?
  • Like Bumi, these people are descendents of Air Nomads having children with the local population, but never matched the spiritual aspect of being an airbender, so it was never active. With the surge of spiritual energy from HC, the latent airbending skill was activated Notice that most of the reports are coming from the Northern Earth Kingdom, which is also where the only Air Temple is located that is within another nation's borders.
  • Nothing like has ever been confirmed or even seriously hinted at. It's purely fan speculation. If that were true It would that would lead to Fridge Horror on part of the Air nomads. "What? My kid is a non-bender? Sorry, he be part of my culture or life."
    • Any child between an airbender and any non-aibender is still half-airbender and will continue to pass that legacy down through their bloodline, there's no need for anyone to be abandoned or anything Fridge Horrorish. Fir an example just look at Aang's kids, Tenzin, Kya and Bumi are all half-airbender and half waterbender and could pass down the potential to either to their children.
  • I highly suspect that did happen. We've seen where the Air Bender temples and while yes we do see that it's possible to live there without Air Bending but considering Aang found them so fascinating I think it's safe to say that wasn't done before so when you had a child born who couldn't bend they may very well have been abandoned.
  • That's not what it means. It means that there are just some people with the "airbender gene" that were never part of the culture for whatever reason—descendants of people who left because they felt like it, maybe, or from before the Air Nomads solidified into a single nation—but never manifested airbending until the extra energy of Harmonic Convergence sent anything spiritual into overdrive.
  • Bending is a spiritual connection-the air nomads were all air benders (originaly) because they were the most spiritual.Harmonic convergance caused a shift in the energy,sensed by those sensitive to it. Katara and Toph had non bending parents,so we know bending isnt genetic.We also know that NB are comfortable as non-benders,and benders feel super connected to their element,and only their element,because it's in their essence of their being. Peple seem to get this in the ATLA fandom but not here ,sorry to sound harsh.
  • Except it doesn't mean it's not genetic. It could be a recessive gene or it could be more complicated than a simple on off switch. If it wasn't genetic you'd think that on occasion that there would be benders just randomly born who have a connection to a different element. It would be akin to changing a religion because despite being surrounded by X religion it just never set right with you. Since we've seen benders accidentally bend it wouldn't even be impossible. You'd also have to explain Zaheer who is incredibly spiritual, more so than any other character we've seen and the moment he got Air Bending he knew all the moves including the ones not in the book because even the super spiritual Air Nomads weren't flying unaided.

Why does Zaheer have a special prison?

• It's stated that Zaheer was not an airbender until the episode in which he first appeared. So why was it necessary to build a special prison just for him?
  • The implication is that he really is just that badass.
  • He's presumably an epic martial and escape artist.
  • This is likely it. The other three benders are kept in prisons tailor made to counteract their abilities: the earthbender is kept on a wooden outpost in the middle of the sea, the water bender is kept in a hot and dry volcano, and the Sparky Sparky Boom Lady is kept in an unheated hole in the core of a frozen glacier. Zaheer, on the other hand, is just kept in a cage on a mountain, which is so simple that there's only one actual way out: a retractable bridge that's only controlled from the other side. Nothing for an escape artist to exploit in order to get out. Not to mention he's already a master airbender despite only having his abilities for two weeks, so it's likely he was a master martial artist to begin with.

How can Ming-Hua grip things with water tentacles?

• They're made of water. Liquid water. Solid objects tend to pass through liquid.
  • To this question I can only ask: have you even watched this show? How many other characters have we seen pick up objects with water? Ming-Hua is hardly unique in this.

How did Zaheer know where Korra was?

• All he did was meditate and somehow he figured out that Korra was with the Metal Clan. But... how?
  • Jinora can project her spirit out of her body and Bumi can communicate with Bumju, and both of them are regular people. Not to mention the stories of airbender gurus who are able to go months without eating and 'fly'. Zaheer is a deeply spiritual man, so he probably has a strong connection to the spirits, strong enough that allowed him to deduce Korra's location (either by sensing her, or observing someone talk about her) by focusing his energy hard enough.
  • This bugs me a bit too. It's probably related to that talisman he stole from Air Temple island; the inscription makes it sound like it describes how to project your spirit or something similar. That much isn't too bad, given it's Zaheer... But how did that allow him to find Korra? When Jinora did it for Kai, it worked because she has a connection with him. As far as we know, Zaheer doesn't have that with Korra. Might be explained in another episode yet, though.
  • He did try to kidnap/murder her when she was first discovered. That's why he was locked up for years. Perhaps that created a connection.
  • Plus, remember in the original series, Aang was taught in that swamp that 'Everything is connected', and used that process to tell where Appa and Momo were in seconds? With Zaheer's twisted-yet-deep understanding of airbending philosophy (and it's separations from common perceptions), he could have done the same process through meditation, just slower.
  • Turns out they have allies across the world. Perhaps he was connecting to them, and eventually found the one in Zaofu who was able to explain that Korra was there.
  • Also, they used to be in cahoots with Unalaq. They might have allies in the Spirit World, as well.
  • Zaheer's contact in Zaofu (Aiwei), is shown meeting with him in The Spirit World in The Stakeout. Presumably Zaheer was communicating with him.
  • Confirmed that Aiwei was his source.

How did Ming-Hua not die from thirst while in prison?

• Okay, so I get that Ming-Hua is locked away in a volcano so she won't have any access to water... But that being said, seeing how easily she broke out just from getting a single barrel of water brought to her, one has to wonder how she ever survived in there to begin with. Like, wouldn't that logically imply that she also would never have had anything to drink?
  • No, it wouldn't. They would have given her just enough water to survive on, just like the Fire Nation did to captive waterbenders in the previous war, see Puppetmaster.
  • It's been a while since I've seen the original show, but didn't Hama say they bound their hands whenever they were given something to drink so they couldn't waterbend? Ming-Hua doesn't have or need hands so when ever she was given something to drink she could have used it to escape.
  • She'd need more than a cup or two of water to fight off the dozens of guards or have any hope of escaping.

Why is Ming-Hua armless?

• Was she born without arms? Did she have a terrible accident or acquire a horrid parasite such that amputation was the only way for her to survive? Or worst of all, did someone deliberately amputate her arms, either as revenge or to "send a message?"
  • I was under the impression that someone chopped off her arms in order to stop her from waterbending, what with it pretty much being "Make the water mimic my arm-movements" (watch "The Water Bending Scroll" from Avatar for a concrete example). The fact that she not only can bend at all without her arms, but to such degree that she can replace her arms is what makes her an unique bender, just as P'Li's explosive fire-bending and Ghazan's magma earth-bending.
  • The creators addressed this recently and they said she was born without arms which makes since for her to be so proficient without them which takes years of practice.

Which one was false?

• Bolin suggested that Ghazan (1) was raised by his sister, (2) has had his moustache since age 10, and (3) has an unspoken attraction with Ming-Hua. Ghazan said that he had gotten two out of three correct. Which one was inaccurate?
  • Given the look Ming-Hua gave Ghazan, it's safe to assume that the "unspoken attraction" is accurate (though it's unknown if the attraction is one-sided or not). The serious answer is that his mustache growing in at age 10 is inaccurate, since it's kind of ridiculous for a mustache to grow on someone that young. The silly answer is that he was raised by an older sister was inaccurate, as Ghazan is badass enough to grow a mustache before he would've left the early stages of puberty, human biochemistry be damned.
  • Ghazan could have hit puberty early though; there are cases where it's been known to hit boys and girls much earlier than the usual.
  • I think all three were right. By definition, Ghazan wouldn't admit to an "unspoken" attraction, would he?

Why doesn't Ghazan use his magma shuriken anymore?

• He used it like, once. And it was cool, and at the time of this writing, it's shown in his picture on the character page. But... he has never used it since. Also, when it hit that WL guard, why did it sound like it was just a blunt object rather than something that should be... well, burning?
  • He only used the shuriken probably because the had a very limited supply of rocks on him and the would've been the most effective weapon during those situations. Now, he can turn the entire battlefield into a lava field and throw large molten rocks at his opponent. As for the sounds, maybe it's because they would be deemed too violent? You know, if they had included a brning sound or a cutting sound, it may have greatly implied that they were lethal attacks/

Does Zaheer violate canon?

• It's been specifically stated by Word of God that airbending has no lethal moves. How then to explain the power Zaheer used to suck all of the air out of the lungs of The Earth Queen, and later Korra as well?
  • There's a difference between not having and not being capable of. The Air Nomads were a pacifist group, they had a cultural aversion to creating deadly moves.
  • Airbending as an art has no lethal moves. Zaheer however despite how badly he wants it is not an Airbender. He's a man with the ability to Air Bend despite his insane natural talent for it he's entirely self taught. Also Word of God was clearly incorrect. In a world where characters weren't all Made of Iron, Aang would have gotten at least a few kills on his score card from slamming guys up against walls and knocking them off high things. Though perhaps he meant no moves that kill directly using the air, but at this point that is clearly a case of won't, not can't. And sucking the air out of someones lungs is just a forbidden art for obvious reasons. We also don't really see him try it in a fight, Korra is pretty hard up when he tries it on her and it judging by how long it took on the queen and was taking on Korra it might not be viable against someone who can actively bend at you.
    • I think you mean Zaheer is not an Air nomad, since "airbender" has no definition beyond "someone who bends air," which Zaheer is.
  • Pretty sure that Aang killed that buzzard wasp in ATLA.

The Red Lotus's plan

• So, in the stakeout, Zaheer claimed they wanted to capture Korra as a child to raise her to open the spirit portals and release Vaatu, and that they weren't going to hurt her. Their current plan is killing her in the Avater state to end the cycle. Was Zaheer lying? Did their plans change with Vaatu's defeat? Were they going to kill her after releasing Vaatu?
  • We have to remember that, while he was telling Korra about their plans, it was part of the strategy to delay her getting back to the physical world, and thus capture her. He may have been telling the whole truth, or he may not have been - we may never know for certain. Also, freeing Vaatu wasn't really part of the Red Lotus's plans; just Unalaq's, because he veered from their central purpose for his own gain. And anyway, freeing Vaatu would have created disorder, but at the cost of killing all humans in the process... which wasn't really an option.
  • It could be true. They would have needed to train Korra to allow her to enter the avatar state, which they need for the spirit portals to be opened. As for ending the avatar cycle, Korra doesn't need to be killed for that; it already happened when Vaatu pulled Raava out non-fatally. What they wanted really was for Raava and Vaatu to be put back into their stalemate like before Wan separated them.
  • They probably changed plans after they escaped from prison. Training and indoctrinating Korra as a member when she was a child would have helped their goals, but as an adult they wouldn't be able to convince her to join them, so killing her jumping up to being their best way of dealing with her. The big question is whether they would have tried to destroy the Avatar cycle if they captured her as a child. While the Avatar's personality changes when they reincarnate, if they successfully changed the world order to make the give the Avatar the duty of destroying failed governments, the Avatar would presumably continue that duty in their future incarnations, continuing the agenda of the Red Lotus far into the future.
  • Maybe they planned to brainwash her into letting them kill the Avatar by killing her. Convince her it's her duty to save the world by sacrificing her life to kill the evil, tyrannical spirit born inside her; train her to go into the Avatar State; then administer the poison on someone who won't fight back, believing it's their destiny and for the good of the world. Piece of cake.
  • Wait, why can't both explanations be true? The Red Lotus originally intended to use Korra to open the portals and set Vaatu loose upon the world. By the time its remaining members escape, though, Harmonic Convergence has already passed - Vaatu is slowly regenerating inside Raava, and won't be ready to face her for another 10,000 years, meaning freeing him is no longer an option. So they're left with the next-best option of killing the spirit of light, order, and peace.

Red Lotus knowledge

• How much did the Red Lotus know about Vaatu, Raava, and Unalaq's plans? While Zaheer was quite the expert on spiritual matters, his goals were focused on human governments, with spirit world integration not so much as mentioned.

Why didn't Zaheer try to kill Desna and Eska?

• Zaheer has shown to want to kill two birds with one stone if it will accelerate the Red Lotus' agenda. Long Live The Queen definitely shows that he would kill the Queen while at the same time, retrieve Korra? After all, his main goal is to eliminate every world leader and drive the world into anarchy. So, why didn't he or Ming-Hua even attempt to kill Desna and Eska when there was no one else protecting them?
  • I have two different theories. Number 1: They didn't know Eska and Desna were the leaders of the tribe and just though they were just a couple of kids. Or... they were focused on the prime directive, Korra. They'd take care of them later.
  • It's also likely that killing them (and Tonraq) at that point wouldn't have caused the same destabilization that their assassination of Hou-Ting did. Taking out either water tribe's leaders would have probably galvanized either tribe's peoples against him. The strike at Hou-Ting was more effective since her dictatorship made the Earth Kingdom more susceptible to a decapitation strike.
  • I don't think it's necessarily the destabilization they're aiming for, it was more about the timing and circumstances. It would look too suspicious and more like indiscriminate killing if three world leaders ended up dead at the same time. I'd imagine they would want to eliminate world leaders, but do so under the right circumstances where the death of world leaders looks more just and less indiscriminate.

How old was Zaheer when he rescued P'li from that warlord?

• "Enter The Void" seems to imply that there was a significant age gap between Zaheer and P'li when they first met, as P'li says that she was a little girl who was being used by a warlord as a weapon until Zaheer rescued her. Unless Zaheer, as a young boy or at the latest a teenager, was already a dangerously competent Badass Normal capable of commanding such a rescue operation, this would imply that P'li is much younger than Zaheer, and they knew each other for a while and presumably got into a relationship some time after P'li turned eighteen. But I don't see any May–December Romance bullets under P'li or Zaheer's character sheets, so am I incorrect? Did I misunderstand the situation?
  • Stuff like that bothers villains very little. It's most likely true, but I'm sure neither of them care.
  • On the other hand, Badass Normals of very young ages are hardly unheard of in this world. Neither is it specifically stated Zaheer did it alone. Taking out a warlord could be something the Red Lotus would dispatch a team to accomplish. There is prime fan fic material here for Zaheer being a red Lotus in training stumbling on P'li while the older Red Lotus are busy fighting the warlord.

How can Ming-Hua climb with her water tentacle arms?

• I understand how she can hold streams of water in place so they extend out from her shoulder sockets, and how she can move them so they work like arms. What I don't understand is how she can use them to climb cage bars, catwalks, and cavern walls. If she moves the water in that direction, why does her body follow along for the ride? She doesn't have the power to weld the water to her body. For example, when she escapes from her Tailor-Made Prison, she bends the water so that it grips the bars and moves upward, but that should just move them away from her body, not drag her body along behind them. Same with when she's turned them into ice to get P'Li out — if she had frozen them up against her skin and bone, all that should have left her with was torn, bleeding skin when she moved the ice up the wall.
  • Waterbenders can, when necessary, give their water extra "coherence", making it behave almost solid. Note Katara's water whip and the waterbending handcuffs Tarrlok used on Asami.
  • That doesn't answer the question; that's a better answer for the above Headscratcher "How Does Ming-Hua Grip Things". The OP was askingy she doesn't detach from them when hanging from them, which is a very good question that... I honestly have no answer to. Best I can think is maybe they sort of "hook" under what armpits she has, and carry her, but that's pretty weak.

De-bending Zaheer

• Why didn't Korra take away Zaheer's bending? She has the ability to energybend.
  • She was in no condition to do it when they first re-captured him, and she's been busy since then. Also, after experiencing first hand what it's like to lose your bending, she's probably less than eager to do this to others.
  • Remember that energy bending automatically grants the power to your opponent as well. Generally this isn't a problem as the people who can energy bend are more spiritual than their opponents. But Zaheer vs Korra in a battle of spirits and wills? That doesn't sound like something that's going to work out well for Korra.
    • Where does it say it grants the power to the opponent as well? All it says is that if your spirit is not unbreakble then you can get destroyed.
  • Energybending is probably only used as an alternative to execution, a precedent set by Aang in the previous series - Ozai was too powerful a firebender for any prison to hold him, and Yakone was a psychic bloodbender who didn't require a full moon. Zaheer is still fully capable of being contained even with his airbending, so there's no harm in letting him keep it.
  • It's possible that Korra doesn't know how to energybend on her own, and that she only did so before by going off of Aang's experience via the Avatar State. Since Raava was injured by Vaatu, Aang's consciousness doesn't exist anymore, so the knowledge of how to give and take away bending went with him.

Splitting up the Red Lotus

• Why didn't Team Avatar try the old Divide and Conquer ploy on the Red Lotus? They could have tried a strategy where they pit the four Red Lotus members against each other and weaken their unity as a group. It's a common tactic used against every villain group. Plus, given that they're a group of anarchists, I figure the ploy would work on them.
  • They didn't keep quiet for thirteen years and break each other out just to be talked into turning on each other.
  • I don't really follow how the trope wouldn't work on them. Couldn't the heroes try some Batman Gambit that will subtly trick the four members into arguing and turning on each other, such that they wouldn't see it coming? There's a psychological aspect involved that makes the Divide and Conquer a very effective trick. Even villainous groups that claimed to run on The Power of Friendship fell victim to this trope a lot.
  • New Team Avatar has never indicated that they are at all good at that sort of thing. Subtle psychological manipulation is not their forte. The most subtle thing they ever did was when Asami managed to get herself chained to a weak bar on the wall.
  • I wouldn't go that far. Mako and Bolin have pulled scams during their days as street urchins. But whether psychological manipulation is their forte or not isn't the point I'm going at here, and let's ignore that for a moment. Getting back on topic, there's a reason why Divide and Conquer is one of the Oldest Tricks In The Book, because it works on every villainous group if done by the hero. Would it have worked on the four Red Lotus Members? Why or why not?
  • As stated previously: The four of them spent thirteen years in solitary confinement, in conditions that would be less than ideal even with other people. They never even told the White Lotus why they went after Korra. And presumably, the White Lotus would have used experts to interrogate them. And they all had the resolve of a true zealot: They'd shown that they'd all die for one another and for their cause. Nothing about what we saw of the Red Lotus says they'd be vulnerable. And since they (Team Avatar) knew nothing about the four of them, outside of "They want to kill Korra," they had nothing to use as a angle to work on any of them. Even the most tried-and-true psychological techniques aren't infallible. No - it would not have worked on the Red Lotus.
  • Correction, Korra does know that the Red Lotus are anarchists, because she had a conversation with Zaheer. Therefore, she has an angle to work off of—their cause. Given the nature of anarchists (since the aim is to have a society where one has no allegiance but to self), whether they would continue to follow Zaheer would be their point of contention. Plus, Zaheer never let the others call the shots, but Korra doesn't have to know that for the trick to work. I mean, it worked in Night At The Museum 2 when Larry got the Big Bad's henchmen to turn on each other, yet he didn't have to know anything about them for the trick to work, showing how easy the trick is to pull off. Besides, in every story, every villain has a weakness, just as every how every hero has a weakness.
  • So she knows they're anarchists. So what? Anarchy isn't chaos, and being anarchists doesn't mean that they all want to call the shots on their own. If, after 13 years of solitary confinement, none of them have broken and they all go right back to following their leader? That means that no, a couple of kids trying to needle them into an argument is not going to break them apart. They're way more together than that.
  • Well, in Avengers Assemble Hyperion refused to break and sell his Squadron Supreme teammates out, making you think they were tight-knit. Yet, the Squadron Supreme ended up falling apart and arguing after they thought they won, which was what the heroes expected. This just shows even a tight-knit group can fall apart like that. So the issue becomes, what happens if the Red Lotus does win and they get anarchy? Have they any reason to do things Zaheer's way?
  • What happens in Avengers Assemble isn't relevant to this show. This show demonstrated villains who just plain were not going to fall apart from their decades-long devoted mission because of couple kids needling them.
  • Sorry, but I understand things better through comparisons between similar situations, because most Western Animation shows follow a certain pattern nowadays. If anything, I'll bet each member had a different vision on what they want after they win. Therefore, they'd really have no reason to follow Zaheer afterwards. The point is if you drive a wedge between even people who are close, they get into an uncooperative state and then they're easy to pick off one by one. Friends fight over the remote, friends fight over the last slice of Pizza, or even greater, friends get jealous of each other. If a hero can get them in an uncooperative situation like that, their enemies are easy to pick off one by one.
  • You're asking for heroes who've never shown that they're adept with that kind of tactic to do that against villains who we're given no indication it would have any effect on.
  • Every villain in a story has a weakness, no matter what. No fellowship is perfect. Every person has different ideas for freedom, which would mean once you are granted it, you are free in every sense of the word—free to have your own ideas, and even free to do whatever you want without anyone telling you. If you were given the kind of freedom Zaheer wanted, it's hard to pass up the opportunity to enjoy your freedom the way you choose. The people of Ba Sing Se were free to turn on each other. This exhibits one of the major flaws of Zaheer's cause for anarchy—you're free to turn on anyone, even your own neighbor, or you are free to no longer listen to others. That's how their cause could've worked against them. They would've gone their separate ways anyways because by then, they would've eliminated all governments and the cause that unites them is gone. I can see that they each want something out of their revolution—Zaheer wants the Avatar gone and the ability to fly, P'li wants to get rid of prisons, so chances are Ghazan and Ming Hua probably have their own ambitions as well.
  • Even if we grant these desires as given^note Dubious: Zaheer only knew of stories of Airbender flight and only seriously went for it when he had nothing left to lose (P'li dead, Korra's allies in front of him, sheer cliff behind), again: Team Avatar knows none of this. Certainly not at the level which they'd need to use it against the Red Lotus. And, AGAIN, none of Team Avatar has shown any talent for psychological manipulation. This isn't some team of mooks being pumped for information. This is a group of hardcore zealots who've already endured far more than Korra and co. were able or willing dish out. Frankly if they did try it and it worked, that would've been a bigger cop-out than the Ozai Easy Button.
  • As an added point of consideration, let's be honest here: that tactic is rather unrealistic. Nobody's going to willingly listen to or give any creedence to their enemy trying to divide them. I mean, let's look at the examples given here: Night at the Museum and Avengers Assemble. Now, this is not an insult to either one, but each of them is, deliberately, aimed at a low-age audience with very cartoonish writing. Again, not an insult, it's simply how both properties are made, and the tone that they're going for. Korra has routinely demonstrated much more mature, realistic writing and characters, including villains who are far too grounded and intelligent to fall for a trick that a slightly-smarter-then-average kindergardener would see through.
  • I'm a bit late to the discussion, but I want to add my two cents to the Avengers Assemble comparison: the Squadron Supreme only turned against each other when they thought the Avengers were dead, ie, they thought that they had won. If the Red Lotus had succeeded, maybe they would've turned on each other, but Team Avatar would almost certainly never convince them to, especially since killing Korra is one of their main objectives.
  • From what I've seen, the members of the Red Lotus seem to be pretty friendly with each other. Even if Team Avatar did have the skillset for this kind of ploy (as mentioned above, they don't), it typically is used more against opponents who have assumed a temporary, fragile alliance, not friends who have been working with each other from the start.
  • P'Li and Zaheer are in love with each other, Zaheer broke Ghazan out and Ming-Hua has some unspoken attraction to him (and possibly mutual in turn). They're not turning on each other.

Keeping the airbenders

• Why did Zaheer try keeping the airbenders hostage even after Korra surrendered herself? He and his team were supposed to be anarchists who were bent on destroying governments and world order - how would keeping the airbenders aid them in that plan?
  • It could be that Zaheer didn't have it in him to kill a people whose culture he held in such high esteem, especially when they were at the cusp of an unforeseen revival. Capture is also the go to for villains in the series, given that it's still a cartoon for young audiences.
  • Zaheer probably suspected some kind of subterfuge from Korra and the team, and intended to trap, and possibly kill her dad and the others in the Northern Air Temple, using Tenzin as bait, to prevent them from interfering with his plans again.

Zaheer freeing the others

• How and why did Zaheer know where the three of his pallies were being imprisoned? They were supposedly all arrested at the same time, and wouldn't the location of each prison have been kept secret from the others?
  • He probably met with undercover Red Lotus agents in the spirit world, who knew where the others were being kept. Same way he found out Korra was in Zaofu.

Dragons and their status in the wild

• So Zuko has a dragon that he rides on. Cool, but how are they doing as a species? Have they recovered too, or are they just given incredibly long lives? Given the appearance of the one we see, it looks like a younger dragon, but I'm not sure.
  • Personally I think Zuko's dragon hatched from the Sun Stone.
  • Zuko's dragon is the spawn of the two dragons he learned the Dancing Dragon from.

Druk

• Did that combustion blast kill Druk?
  • Nobody has any idea and couldn't possibly answer this question because we haven't seen anything of him since then.
  • In "Long Live the Queen", Druk is seen outside the Oasis, calmly sleeping in the desert, which causes some Earth Kingdom troops to just declare they need a drink. So he's probably fine.

No Basic Training offered to airbenders

• I get that most of those asked by Tenzin didn't want to leave their families. That's fine, I probably wouldn't in their shoes. What I question is why Tenzin did not offer to even give them a small fraction of training to stop them blowing their houses down. Is it just down to a lack of time?
  • It seems that other than the man in Republic City that airbending comes naturally with a fair amount of control for some reason. Zaheer mastered it seemingly completely in two weeks, Kai seems reasonably talented, more so than Bumi who'd had a little formal training at that point. For the most part they don't seem to be a danger to themselves or others.
  • Zaheer has been implied to studied Air Nomad culture for years, and probably memories air bending techniques. So when he discovered he had those abilities he just put those techniques into action. Which combine with his already physical prowess makes him very dangerous.
  • It's also immediately obvious that Tenzin and Korra are just frustrated with the situation as well as being under something of a time limit. Given what we know about how bending works as far as air being closer to water and farthest from earth specifically it's likely that there are airbenders not just in the Earth Kingdom but also in the Fire Nation and Water Tribes and possibly amongst the non bending parts of the world as well and some of them may actually be like the man from Republic City and a threat to himself and others.

Aang The Last Airbender

• Both Aang and Tenzin are presented as being very wise individuals. I can almost fathom how Aang (who mind you left the Air Temples when he was very young and grew to maturity in Republic City one would imagine) has nostalgic feelings towards the Air Benders but everything we saw in Avatar: The Last Airbender suggests that Air Bending Society took extinction pretty hard. Which is natural. Why have neither of them figured you that the Air Nomads are dead and gone and whatever they are now is part of a new kind of Air Benders who do not share blood, tradition or history with the Air Benders of the past.
  • They do recognize them as new Air Benders. It's just that they want to get them together in order to help them control and manage their abilities, as well as to prevent anyone from abusing them-such as the Earth Queen.
  • Tenzin was specifically mentioning things like shaving your head, giving up worldly possessions and getting tattooed. All things connected to the traditional Air Nomads. He is clearly not, thus far, treating these people as the beginning of something new instead of the continuation of something old. Considering how the cosmology works in the Avatarverse it's worth noting that if the Air Nomads were meant to live again the spirits responsible for the new Air Benders would have given it to the Air Acolytes instead of just random people. As it stands perhaps Air Benders are meant to be like the air and be a part of every nation.
  • As much as the Air Nomads taught about enlightenment and freedom, at the end of the day, Tenzin is a man who's focus has always been on duty to his culture and to keep it going, is he going about recruiting air benders the best way? No, he's projecting his sense of duty to a bunch of people who until recently, have never airbended in their lives, let alone studied what it means to be a bender at all, of course his view and tactics when concerning the new airbenders are going to be flawed.
  • Tenzin is that way because Aang raised him that way. Why did Aang raise him that way, it makes no more sense than taking a modern American and raising him to uphold ancient Roman Tradition. The fact is the Air Nomads died nearly two hundred years ago and this new order are at best aping the old ways. This gets fairly well explored in the Star Wars EU with Luke and his students being explicitly different from the Jedi Masters before because he basically has to make it up as he goes along.
  • The big difference here is that Aang is pretty much an old Airbender. In the Star Wars analogy, it's less like Luke rebuilding the Jedi Order, and more like Obi-Wan and Yoda having the time and resources to properly do it themselves, instead of setting a half-trained replacement on his way to rebuild it. Aang had every Air Nomad tradition fresh on his head, he was, to the core, an Air Nomad. Sure, they died out more than a hundred years prior to Tenzin's birth, but as far as Aang was concerned, that was only a few years. So, during his whole life, Tenzin was trained in the very conservative Air Nomad culture, helped by the fact that some non-benders also decided to keep the culture alive by adopting the culture themselves.
  • Actually Aang's actions showed that he knew the Air Nation/Culture wouldn't be the same as it once was and that he was making changes. The Air Acolytes are a perfect example of Aang accepting change. Remember as a kid Aang hated non-air benders living in the Air Temples and how they changed everything in the temple. Aang accepted the Air Acolytes and taught them Air Nomad tradition because they genuinely wanted to model their lives after them. Aang to his credit taught them everything he knew, but fixed up the Air Temples for them to live in. He never treated them as lesser from what little we've seen. Before Tenzin got a seat on the council in book 1 one of the Acolytes held the seat and treated as equal to the other Nation's council members. The problem is Aang taught people who wanted to be part of the new Air Nation where as Tenzin is taking new air benders who didn't to be air benders and expecting them to give up their old lives to be the new Air Nomads. Aang did accept and made changes to his culture to allow non benders from different nations to join. Tenzin hasn't accepted change and expects every air bender to become Air Nomads, not realizing they have their own histories and lives. We don't how Aang would have reacted. He might have made the same mistakes as Tenzin, but I think he would have realized the mistake sooner and made changes to accommodate them. We know Aang did that once by turning the fir colonies into United Republic after seeing the error of trying to make Fire Nation/Earth Kingdom colonies go back to the way they were a 100 years ago.

Do the Air Acolytes not count?

• The show has established that all Air Nomads are born benders, because of the high spirituality. But here's the question, why couldn't non-benders adopt their way of life and be a part of it? As much as the Air Acolytes seem to have ingrained themselves in Air Nomad culture, they never seem to be treated like "real" Air Nomads, just stewards of the culture until the benders come back. Now we have new air benders, and Tenzin is completely focused on getting them into the temples. It just seems somewhat unfair to the non-bender acolytes who have chosen to dedicate themselves. It would be nice if we knew that some did turn out benders, and there are hints that Zaheer may have been a former acolyte. On the same note, even if Bumi wasn't an airbender, did Aang just never consider raising him like a nomad as he did with Tenzin? I can see Katara not wanting their children to go that route, but it's likely Aang just never considered it, only wanting an airbender child to carry the traditions. It has the unfortunate implication that airbenders don't believe non-airbenders are worthy of being a part of their culture, and the Acolytes are a compromise. The Nomads weren't really a nation like the others, they were a religious order, and Tenzin is acting like a missionary.
  • Well, the Acolytes can never become actual Nomads, at least in the sense the Air Nomads used to be. They are just following the monastic lifestyle, which is only a small part of the Air Nomad culture. They are supposed to be constantly travelling around the world, only stopping in the Air Temples to rest and leave their children to be raised by the elderly who had settled down. The Air Acolytes fulfill the religious, monastic part of the Airbender culture, but they can't bring back its nomadic side.
  • That is a good point, but it's not as though being non-benders is really stopping them from traveling. The air bison are repopulating and there are zeppelins they could ride on. It's not as though the Air Nomads got around solely with their gliders. The Acolytes could indeed be doing that and we just haven't been shown. It could take a long time before they reach that point, yes, but it just seems like Tenzin and Aang can't see the forest for the trees, so to speak.
  • In The Original Airbenders, Tenzin says that there aren't enough bison and as for zeppelins, how would they get those and pay for them? I believe airbenders try their best to be self-sustaining. Anyway, perhaps there are other reasons why they don't travel. Tenzin, their leader and up until recently one of the only airbenders, has never traveled as much as the original air nomads did and He doesn't seem to be making the new airbenders travel a lot either.
  • It seems to be a difference between how Aang and Tenzin view the Acolytes. Aang accepted them as part of the new Air Nation and taught them the secrets and fixed up the Temples for them to live in. In the Yakkone flashback shows was one of the Acolytes and not Aang as a council member representing the Air Nation. Tenzin seems to treat them as servants in the present. This isn't helped by how the Acolytes treat Tenzin as a god and worship him. I assume that Tenzin having air bending makes both Tenzin and Acolytes feel as if Tenzin is the real deal and they are just servants. The Original Airbenders implies that Aang did in fact teach Bumi and Kya about their heritage on his side of the family. Kya mentions she could never keep all the gurus straight because there was so many of them. That at least means Aang did teach her and Bumi about their culture and not just Tenzin as book 2 implied.
  • In book 3, Kya does mention one of the Gurus that Tenzin was teaching the new Nomads about. Maybe Aang did try to teach all of his kids about Air Nomad culture, but slowly gave up when it became clear that Tenzin was the only one who was interested.

Morse Code?

• Morse Code is named after its inventor (and the inventor of the telegraph), Samuel F. B. Morse. Logically, it should not exist in the Avatarverse.
  • The Earth Kingdom is a large, diverse territory, and for all we know, it was named by someone under a pseudonym or after the family Mouse Horse. Plus, we let King Kuei name his bear Bosco, which is Italian in origin.
  • It was invented by Morse Hong, a brilliant earthbender student of Toph, who realized that shockwaves used in Toph's Earth Sense would be useful for sending messages to other earthbenders, and the idea evolved from there.
  • Head canon updated (although the idea of Bumi being an interdimensional traveler is still an entertaining one).
  • Apparently, Lyme Disease (named after Lyme, Connecticut) exists in this universe too.
  • Well, that one's easy: Varrick is a Time Lord.
  • I assumed this was just a case of Translation Convention.

Does Mako forget he can lightning bend?

• When fighting Ming-Hua one shot of lightning should do the job. The water that she has attached to herself for her bending would conduct it straight into her torso. One shot Bam! So Mako uses regular fire during their fight to build false suspense? It was the same at the end of book one, when Amon is escaping after his defeat, Mako is throwing fire at him despite the fact that Amon is in the water where fire will have least effect and lightning would have the most.
  • Lightning bending requires an amount of charge-up while you separate the positive and negatives energies. And in the middle of a serious fight, facing off against highly dangerous opponents, there really isn't room for that risk... plus, that charge-up would have worked against him during Amon's escape as well; by the time he'd actually prepared it, he'd be gone (at least with firebending he had shots).
  • That's exactly what he did in the season 3 finale. The opportunity didn't present itself. As mentioned before lightning bending requires a charge-up and aiming for her water arms would probably only result in her evading. The reason Mako succeeded was because she was completely surrounded by water which meant he only needed to aim at the ground.
  • Indeed, aiming was precisely an issue as well - in the paraphrased words of Iroh: "Once you summon the lightning, you do not command it; you are simply it's humble guide". In this respect, while lightning-bending, you can aim the general direction, but you cannot always hit precisely where you want it to go after it leaves your body. Thus it is not good against nimble targets (or targets that are going faster than you are), like in his first fight with Ming-Hua, because of the very small window.
  • Plus he realizes that using lightning would kill her and Mako being a young man, would probably want having to kill her as a last resort.
  • Wait, can't Mako use lightning-bending non-lethally? He used it on an Equalist truck-driver back in Season 1.
  • It was non-lethal there, but that was a controlled split-second burst; anything longer could have caused serious damage. But even in short bursts, the aiming issue still applies, and the likelihood is Mako doesn't want to kill unless necessary.

A metal city?

• Wouldn't a city made entirely of metal be unbearably hot?
  • It would depend on the climate. On hotter, clearer days, though, it certainly would.
  • Depends also on how it's designed. Use enough insulation and maybe put some mirroring elements in place to keep as much direct sunlight away from the structures and it shouldn't be a huge issue.

Wait, the White Lotus were bad guys all along?

• What I got from Zaheer was that up until the end of the hundred-year war, they were all like the Red Lotus? As in, promoting anarchy and all that? From what we saw of them in the Last Airbender, that makes very little sense.
  • No. Before and during the Hundred-Year War the White Lotus was a secret society working outside the bounds of governments and their restrictions. They had their own ideology and their own goals, and they pursued peace under their own terms. Afterwards they became public and essentially became one of the branches of the United Republic's government. That's where the split happened and those who disagreed with the organisation's new path went to the other extreme and became fully fledged anarchists. Though probably even within the Red Lotus there are multiple competing ideologies; I really can't believe Unalaq ever supporting abolition of governments, for example. Zaheer's group is probably just the most radical within the Red Lotus.

Why does Asami need keys to free Korra?

• We can clearly see that Korra is only strapped down with unlocked buckles that could be easily removed by hand. Only the contraption that she's strapped to is locked to the wall, but who cares about locks that aren't attached to the prisoner?
  • I'm not sure removing/unlocking those buckles by hand is as easy as you think... besides, as shown in this episode, Asami is a mechanical genius. If she sees that she can't do anything without the keys, can we really doubt her judgement?
  • Clearly a wire got crossed between writing and animating that scene. Yeah, she could have just popped off those buckles. Even handcuffed, that would have been simple. She needed the keys for her cuffs, at least.

Who was piloting the airship during the Red Lotus attack?

• The airship somehow circles the Northern Air temple, even though P'Li was in a sniper position at the door, and the other three Red Lotus members were down in the Temple.
  • Either P'Li put it on a simple autopilot or they strongarmed some unlucky guy to do it for them.
  • Might not even have needed to be strongarmed, could be someone from Ba Sing Se who was sympathetic to the red lotus and decided to help them. Autopilot doesn't seem as likely though, the ship seems to constantly put her exactly she needs to be, that seems too intelligent.
  • We know of three other Red Lotus agents: Aiwei, Unalaq, and the Red Lotus's founder. They probably have other agents as well, and one of them was piloting the airship.
  • We meet Red Lotus Mooks in the next couple of episodes. One of them was definitely piloting it.

No past lives, but what about Raava?

• Korra mentioned the loss of her past lives again in episode 11, and that did lead to advice from both Iroh and Zuko, which was nice, but I keep wondering, why doesn't she ever talk to Raava? It's not a case of Raava not being available outside of Harmonic Convergence, we saw Wan talking with her on his deathbed at the end of Beginning's Part 2, and she spoke to Korra during the recent convergence, but nothing since then. Raava has lived through all the lives of the avatars, surely she'd have an opinion on things?
  • I think that's just it; Raava is normally so deeply ingrained, that she can't talk to the Avatars. The only times she has spoken (that we know of) while not-bonded were when Wan fused with her in the fight against Vaatu, at Wan's dying moments, and when Korra was literally about to be crushed in a fissure - extraordinary events overall. And during these events, everything was let go, reaching their peak spiritually - and thus Raava was able to get through, even if briefly.
  • Fair enough I suppose, that would make sense. It does feel like there are time throughout book 3 when Korra would be desperate enough that I'd imagine she'd be able to get through though (especially in the finale, but that's really another headscratcher in itself). That Korra never even tries or entertains the idea though, seems a little off to me.
  • I was under the impression that after Season 2, Raava was a "new" Raava since the spirit form was basically reborn/regrew in Vaatu and thus didn't have the experience of all the past Avatars since she got a clean slate too. I don't remember exactly how it was explained in "Beginnings" so it could be contradictory but that's always what I assumed. That since that particular incarnation of the Raava spirit was destroyed, Korra also lost all of that Raava's memories which included the past Avatars.
  • Actually, trying to contact Raava was a plot point for a good portion of Book 4.

Why didn't the airbenders just stay put?

• If they just remained where they were and sat by, they wouldn't have met resistance from the Red Lotus. They could've just sat and waited for Korra, and in the mean time we could've had Zaheer and Tenzin duel with philosophy. Maybe they could've had different interpretations about Guru Laghima and airbending culture. So by resisting Zaheer, did Tenzin put himself, his family, and his people all in danger?
  • Yes, it was a rash decision by Tenzin, but it goes with his character to be greatly passionate about his family and the rebirth of the Air Nomads. He also knows at this point that there is no negotiating with extremists like the Red Lotus. They were put in the most extreme prisons possible for 13 years and never talked. He also may have overestimated their chances of escaping. Perhaps he thought that they had enough experience to protect themselves from P'li, or forgot about her in the heat of the moment.
  • The Red Lotus was holding them hostage under the threat of killing all of them if Korra doesn't compile with their wishes. They were trying to strong arm Korra into surrendering to them. Tenzin didn't want the Air Nation to be used against Korra and possibly feared that Zaheer would follow through when or if Korra came there to try to rescue them. The Red Lotus are extremists. Zaheer would like not to kill off innocent people, but he also shown to have no problem doing so if it helps their ultimate goal. Tenzin, his family, and the new air benders were already in danger. Tenzin's actions may have been rash, but it wasn't without reason.

Why sideline Asami in every bender fight?

• It's been the trend for two seasons now that Asami doesn't get any kind of part in fights against any major foe. This despite of being an Action Girl extraordinaire, and the first season aptly demonstrating just how effective a non-bender using the Equalist martial arts and weapons can be. It's a real shame seeing a great character sidelined like that, and it has some Unfortunate Implications of consistently keeping the "girly girl" from showing her badassery.
  • From a Watsonian perspective, as effective as she is, her foes tend to be better. Much of the Equalist's advantage came from exploiting numerical advantages and from the unfamiliarity of their methods. Many benders are wise to this now, and getting closer is more of a challenge. In Season 2 the main foes were Waterbenders with a severe Homefield Advantage and Nigh-Invulnerable spirits that had to be kept at bay from a distance. In Season 3 the main foes were so Badass that even the most powerful benders could only slow them down; there's no way she'd have a chance to get close to them. She's smart enough to know her limits.
  • From a Doylist perspective, Asami's One-Hit Kill shock gloves makes writing fights more difficult. Either she manages to zap them and they're instantly down (which could be a Story-Breaker Power if used on Big Bads or Dragons), or she they manage to evade her (in which case, she may look ineffective) There's not room for the back and forth trading of blows that a bender versus bender fight has. Her fighting style is more conductive to quickly taking out Mooks, which were plentiful in season 1 but rarer in seasons 2 and 3. Keeping her out of the bigger fights may lead to Fridge Logic, but it doesn't derail the plot or turn her into an ineffectual Faux Action Girl on screen.
  • She could always use chi-blocking; if anyone can learn it, she can. Just dancing around the opponents bending attacks and delivering occasional paralysing blow could keep her fights interesting. She could lose that glove for any number of reasons while fighting a more dangerous foe, after all.
  • It doesn't seem fair to say that she is more or less effective against certain foes, because she didn't even try, or rather, they didn't even let her try. I mean, Batman's a Badass Normal who has taken on even gods such as Darkseid, so if that's made possible by writers, then there no reason the same can't be done for Asami. Or, would it have behooved her to make new gadgets or to learn new skills? There's so many things your can do with a Badass Normal character.

How did Jinora know...

• So, how did Jinora know that the poison was metallic. She wasn't there when the poison was administered and at first glance he seems to be waterbending the poison.
  • Visually? It looks and behaves like mercury, which is pretty distinctly metallic-looking. Or alternatively, she may have overheard them talking prior to them administering it; it's implied she was projecting her spirit for a while, looking for a way to escape
  • She could also have used her spirit intuition or whatnot, or even recognized the symptoms of an acute mercury poisoning on sight, being the brainy girl that she is.
  • In addition to her intelligence, she pretty much connected the dots when she noticed all the Red Lotus members in that cave were all earthbenders.

How are they keeping Zaheer in jail?

• He could just airbend his way out of pretty much anything they build. Unless maybe they've got him in a vacuum sealed cell...
  • It's not like airbending's doing any good if the walls of his cell are solid enough rock or wood that no gust can blow them down. Also, after Korra's feeling better, she may feel like taking his bending away.
  • If she ever feels better..
  • It's fairly simple; this time, put him in a cage that's covered by very thick stone walls (or possibly platinum if they could manage it). No doors, no openings except for a very small grated food slot tray at the top. That way food and water could be dropped down carefully on a regular basis, and even if Zaheer bended through it, he couldn't force his much larger body through the hole.
  • Hell, Zaheer's old prison would work pretty well, since it was basically a sealed metal box. All they would have to do is replace his grated door with a solid one while leaving the opening for food at the bottom.
  • Keeping Zaheer in prison isn't going to do much. The man has plenty of time to sit and meditate, and can easily escape to the spirit world. Bam, freedom. We've even seen spirits can interact with physical objects. Give him enough time to find any one of the portals, and all Zaheer needs to do from there is exit into the material world, find his cell again, open the cell, enter his body, and he's free to do Zaheer things.
  • Actually, while spirits could do that, Zaheer's Astral Projection could not interact with his cell door in that fashion. And if they put him in a prison as described above, which has no doors except for a small food slot, even if he tore it off somehow... he simply wouldn't fit through.
  • The same way people get Korra/Aang imprisoned. Or on a more extreme measure, they could bloodbend his airbending away (Amon's ability is never described as unique, presumably any skilled waterbender would be able to do it on a full moon, and the moral qualms would be mitigated by the circunstances and the lack of pain/removal of free will that normally comes with bloodbending). Or, if everything else fails, there's execution.
  • "Beyond The Wilds" reveals that Zaheer is being kept in a remote mountain prison, bound with heavy chains. He is still able to move around, and even levitate, but cannot escape. He frequently spends time in the spirit world. He is held in a big room, and two big metal doors allow for entrance in and out of his room. The doors are solid, and Metalbenders are required to open and close them.

Why didn't the Red Lotus use the paralysis poison again after Korra surrendered

• Why not administer the same paralysis poison they used in Terror Within to immobilize Korra, then chain her up for good measure, and after that bring out the other poison. As we saw in Terror Within, Korra is still conscious while paralyzed, so why take the chance?
  • Over confidence maybe? Or perhaps they were just too excited to do it that they didn't think of that. Or maybe they didn't have any more (I said maybe). Or lastly, maybe they didn't think that Korra was powerful enough to fight back.
  • I think they didn't have that much of it, least for that point. Plus in The Terror Within, they were trying to kidnap Korra as silently as possible - even if they brought it all along, administering it would have been extremely painful... and thus loud, drawing attention.
  • Maybe the paralysis poison would have counteracted the effect of the metallic poison, as far as the Avatar State goes. If Korra drops unconscious instantly, the Avatar State would probably fail to activate, as well. Killing Korra would at best be very inconvenient with having to wait for him to be reborn into the Earth Nation and be discovered. All cannon hints suggest that Aang was discovered younger than average (Compare him with Roku whom we have a fairly good idea of how he lived) and Korra's just a pure freak and it's joked about.
  • There is probably a certain degree of risk of the Avatar dying. Obviously being in a big fight didn't do Korra any favors but she was on her last legs after what appears to be roughly ten minutes and chemicals sometimes to wacky things when they are mixed in together in the human body. It's important to remember that they don't really want to kill Korra, she's a casualty. They want to kill the Avatar specifically. If the drugs and poison kill her too quickly or heavens forbid somehow lock her out of the Avatar state

Why wasn't the Avatar state activated on the mountain?

• In A:TLA, we've seen multiple examples of Aang triggered into the Avatar state by seeing loved ones hurt. In "Enter The Void", Zaheer blasted Tonraq off the mountain, and it was explicit that Tonraq could have fell to his death. That should have angered Korra into the Avatar state.
  • The difference is Aang could not control the Avatar State at the time, while Korra had control of it as soon as she got it. It doesn't activate unless she wants it to or the situation is just that dire, such as being poisoned.
  • This also seems to touch on the nature of the Avatar State too; like Roku once said, it's a defense mechanism when in mortal danger. Watching Aang, it becomes clear that the state has two stages- a reactionary stage that's works on reflex when emotionally distraught and only seems to function for an Avatar who isn't fully realized, and a controlled stage that's achieved upon being fully realized and works only at will. The thing is, it seems that once you achieve the controlled stage, it no longer works in the reflexive reactionary stage emotionally; although being in genuine life-threatening harm will always trigger it (as was the point of poisoning her). So even though she probably was that angered, unless she chose to activate the Avatar State at that moment, it would never have triggered.

Zaheer's reason for being able to fly

• It's explained the reason Zaheer can fly is because "he's detached himself from all worldly desires", but isn't the Red Lotus's goal of wanting to trigger a revolution and assassinate world leaders kind of a MAJOR worldly desire? It's not like he's detached himself from that goal either since before Korra is healed he boasts that Korra will die from the poison and the Red Lotus will win. And even if it only involved attachments to people or something Aang also had to detach himself from Katara in the original series to get control of the avatar state too and he never learned to fly. What gives?
  • It's not that flight is an ability that's gained upon opening the Thought chakra, it's an ability that only becomes possible to learn after you open your Thought chakra. It's possible that Zaheer has studied Air Nomad philosophy (or at least philosophy relevent to Gura Laghima and his teachings) to a much greater extent than Aang did, which is why he figured out how to fly and Aang didn't. He's obviously a very spiritual man, considering that was able to teleport within the Spirit World and get his body to talk in the physical world, two things that were never shown before.
  • As for the other detail, two of the times Zaheer touches the ground after learning to fly is when he becomes tethered to the earth. The first time is when the other Red Lotus talk to him about P'Li which makes him start thinking about her, and the other time is when his flight starts to fail when the other airbenders start sucking him out of the sky, which is also when he's pretty much consumed by malice and the desire to murder the Avatar and Raava out of a desire to win. Unknowingly to him, malice is just as much an earthly tether as love is.
  • It is possible that the definition of worldly desires Zaheer used means personal desires. The Red Lotus goal is something he wants because he sees it as a philosophical good, not necessarily because he enjoys killing Avatars and world leaders, so it is in a different category of desires (from Zaheer's perspective, at least, and he's the one who has been talking about how our perceptions limits ourselves).
  • Aang did fly after he detached himself from Katara. Watch the scene in Crossroads of Destiny just before he's shot down: he rises in mid-air without using any kind of bending motions. Given how poorly that turned out, it's not surprising he didn't try it again.
  • There is at least one philosophy that would claim that someone with such little disdain for life who takes such pleasure in destruction is free of all selfish/personal desire; that would describe someone who is willing to cause death, destruction, and pain, not because they want it for any personal gain but to serve some Greater Good, as "selfless"; and that believes all evil is caused by people who insist they have no personal desires and have dedicated themselves to and sacrificed themselves and their personal desires for the Greater Good of all like Zaheer so proudly claims — Objectivism. From that point of view, yes, Zaheer fits the description of detaching himself from all worldly desires perfectly.

Bending mercury

• Ignoring the fact that bending mercury because of its liquid state should cause all the same problems as lava bending. (I.E. Lava doesn't behave at all like rocks so even if it's made out out of the same stuff we've seen a grand total of three benders do it one of whom was Avatar Roku) how is it even possible? The reason metal bending is even possible is because of impurities. Sufficiently pure metals (specifically Platinum) are unbendable. Liquid mercury should be pure and combine with the other issue ought be unbendable.
  • That is true, pure mercury is by the world's definition unbendable. However, mercury easily bonds to organic moleclues (which is what makes it so toxic), and thus is no longer pure, making it bendable. I can only imagine they intentionally made it unpure before they bent it into Korra's system, and from there, it only got worse as it bonded to molecules in her system. And as far as bending liquid, waterbending does it easily - and much like redirecting lightning, is likely based upon combining elements of the other nations within another bending discipline.
  • I think Earth bending needs rocks not soil. Organic molecules don't seem to count, clearly flesh bending either is outright impossible or like blood bending is something nobody has ever tried but that sounds unlikely especially following blood bending becoming something that is common enough to be illegal. It's not the lack of purity that makes metal bendable according to Toph (who may have been wrong) it's specifically that metals usually maintain plenty of mineral (rock) impurities inside them. Technically you aren't metal bending, you're bending the earth in the metal. The same way blood and vine bending aren't body and vine bending they are bending the water in the blood and vines respectively so mercury bonded to organic matter shouldn't cut it.
  • Not to mention the Red Lotus had to make sure the mercury was bendable in the first place so they could administer it to her. Otherwise they'd have to get dangerously close to Korra to do it.
  • True, but aside from having Suyin save the day changing the mercury into a liquid poison and swapping Suyin for Kya the writers could easily have swapped this. So in-verse it make some sense that they found away to make the mercury bendable...if that's the only poison they could obtain but out of verse that seemed like an extra step. If this was when Bolin was going to buckle down and learn metal bending at least it wouldn't feel like something pulled wholesale out of ones rear.
  • Why mercury is not unbendable: "Purified" is not synonymous with "pure." Based on what the viewer hears Guru Pathik say at the same moment Toph invents Metalbending, the problem with bending metal is that it's "earth that has been purified and refined." All metals exist in a natural, unrefined state — the rocks we see Earthbenders control all the time could easily contain metallic ores. It may be the phase that makes lava unbendable (for almost everyone), but it's not their chemical make-up or phase that made metal unbendable (before Toph came around) — it's the fact that it's been "purified and refined" by human arts. Except for the meteorites Suyin has her students (beginners) use to practice (because she says they're easier to start with), all the "metal" we see Metalbenders bend is metal objects (boxes, armor, cables, floors, walls, pipes, tracks, airships, etc.) that have been shaped, smelted, and refined by human arts. When characters refer to "metal," they don't seem to mean "substances called a metal on another world's Periodic Table of Elements in any phase or form or state whatsoever;" they seem to mean "human objects made out of metal, by purifying and refining metallic ores." When Xin Fu told Toph, "Even you can't bend metal," he didn't mean, "You can't bend pure iron, pure aluminum, pure gold, pure silver, pure copper, pure lead, etc." He meant, "You can't bend a box made of metal, formed in a process invented by humans that has purified and refined it." Why can't Metalbenders bend platinum? Not because it's purely platinum with no other elements (in our world's use of the term) present, but because when it's worked by human hands out of its natural state, it's too purified and refined for even them to detect any natural, unworked piece of metal/earth ("impurities") within it. We never see any Metalbenders attempt to bend a raw hunk of platinum that hasn't been worked and refined and shaped by human arts. (Presumably, a talented enough Metalbender could bend even purified platinum — the White Lotus didn't keep Ghazan in a platinum prison, after all.) Mercury, however, is liquid in its natural form. So the bowl of liquid mercury used by the Red Lotus had never been "purified or refined" by human arts. It was pure mercury, not purified mercury — metal in its natural state, a type of earth in its natural state, and perfectly bendable.

Could Korra not have just taken Daw's bending away?

• So, late to the party, I know, but in the first episode of Book 3, Daw is up on Kyoshi Bridge and Korra is attempting to console him. Daw says that he doesn't want to be an airbender, and Korra says that she can't do anything about that - except, she totally can. She knows how to energybend, which can be used to take away someone's bending. Energybending doesn't seem like Amon's bloodbending, which appears to have some sort of traumatic effect; none of the humans in the era of Raava shown in "Beginnings" had any problem with the lion turtles taking away their bending - in fact, they did it routinely - and it would be hard to reconcile the idea of Aang heroically mind raping Ozai if it was comparable to Amon's bloodbending. So why couldn't Korra just use energybending to rid Daw of the airbending that he didn't want?
  • Korra could probably tell that, due to the situation, Daw was in the middle of a freak-out, and thus wasn't in his right mind; it wouldn't be proper to take it away from him until his head had cleared, and rationally asked for it.
  • There was a conversation about this subject before: The trauma from bending removal is most likely due to violently ripping away a valued and lifelong ability. There is no evidence that Amon's trick is necessarily more painful than an Avatar's. The ancient Benders would have been fine with it because their bending was a temporary gift from the Lion Turtles, which they received and lost with full prior understanding. In contrast, modern Benders would have grown up with their abilities and considered them an aspect of their entire being. Regarding Korra removing Daw's bending, there are plenty of reasons why she wouldn't. He's the first new Airbender in a century not descended from Aang, and she'd want to know how. He's obviously distressed more from his lack of control, which can be taught. Bending removal has only ever been used as an ultimate sanction or for evil purposes (which she experienced!), so Korra would be VERY reluctant to use it. Lastly, Korra has never used the ability, so while she can definitely do it, it would not be her first instinct.
  • Could she energybend, even if she wanted? She never personally learned the skill, every time she used it she was channeling Aang's knowledge through the Avatar mode, and that's now impossible. For all intents and purposes, energybending might be a lost art, until some Avatar learns it again.
  • Plus, she'd probably only do it if Daw gave her his expressed permission to do so. Removing one's bending is a pretty big deal as Season 1 pointed out.
  • Considering how few airbenders there were, taking away Daw's bending would be like killing a member of an endangered species.

The Red Lotus' plan for the Avatar

• How, exactly, does ending the Avatar cycle further their agenda? The Avatar doesn't rule any nation or government.
  • The Avatar is considered a symbol of unity and hope. I think Zaheer hoped that, by showing that even the Avatar can be killed, the world's descent into anarchy would accelerate or at least be easier for them to achieve.
  • Given the way Korra and the mayor of Republic City interact and how Aang is depicted and how close Aang was with Bumi and Zuko and the way there were still loyal Fire Sages after a century I think the Avatar wields political power probably roughly on par with a Pope. A Pope who's best friends with both the US and Russian Presidents. The bigger issue is probably that any potential plan could be seriously snagged up on an Avatar. The reality is as bad ass as the Red Lotus was it's highly unlikely their plan could have succeeded. The Dai Lee would likely have next to no problems keeping the Earth Kingdom from dissolving for example. The sheer number of people who need to die for governments that well established to simply vanish is mind boggling.
  • This is never stated explicitly, but Zaheer did say he believed the world was thrown out of balance when Wan interfered with Raava and Vaatu. It's possible that destroying the Avatar Cycle would cause Raava to be reborn in her original form. The last step in bringing balance was to restore Raava and Vaatu to their original states and have them battle each other as they did before Wan.
  • Then is he guilty of Did Not Think This Through? Wouldn't killing the Avatar State kill Raava (or the spirit-equivalent of the verb)?
  • This is the guy who didn't see a worse dictator rising up out of the anarchy, which is what always happens. He's a zealot for his understanding of anarchy and was really optimistic about the whole thing working. Makes sense that he would not be completely thinking through the long term effects of killing the light spirit.

Did Korra break her legs during the last fight with Zaheer?

• It seems to me she might have broken her legs when she landed on that spire (or whatever it's called) and that is another thing contributing to her being in a wheelchair.
  • If she broke her legs, wouldn't they be in casts/bandages? Sokka broke his during the final fight of the first show, and when we next see him, he's hobbling on a crutch with a bandaged up leg.
  • Well though, the last time we see her she's wearing her dress, we can't see her legs. Also I'm figuring it was both legs, you can't realy hop around on crutches with both legs broken, especially if combined with the effects of mercury.
  • Season 4 clarifies Korra has some kind of paralysis in her lower body apparently due to damage from the poison (though that fall probably didn't help either).

Katara's Spirit Water and Korra

• OK, if Katara's Spirit Water was able to save Aang at the end of Season 2 of The Last Airbender, why couldn't they just use it on Korra after she was poisoned by the mercury? Even if Katara ran out of her own supply over the last seven decades, couldn't they just take a trip to the North Pole, get some of that special water and heal Korra up that way? Or are they just going to make her heal up the slow way?
  • Aang didn't go from dead to completely fixed. He went from dead to alive but badly injured and Katara spent weeks fixing him up. We also don't know the details of Korra's treatment. Aang got one fatal wound and got himself fixed up inside the hour. Korra spent nearly half an hour suffering from poison, got slammed all around and took some nasty falls. Two weeks to where she is now may be the best the water can do, assuming they're using it.
  • Later episodes show that Korra was still carrying around trace amounts of the poison in her body. Sure, Katara's healing can probably deal with the side effects, but it can't remove the source of the problem.
  • Which leads to a further question as how Katara couldn't detect that (as we find out later) rather significant portion of foreign matter in Korra's body. I could buy that Katara couldn't remove it. But that she couldn't tell it was there, after working with Korra for months (if not years)?
  • Katara is not all knowing. Plus, metal poisoning like this is probably extremely rare so Katara wouldn't know what to look for. Plus, if two of the most powerful metalbenders in the world couldn't spot the trace metal, what makes you think Katara can?
  • This was more likely a problem with visuals. From the way Toph was talking, it sounded like trace amounts of the poison. When we actually see what was left, it was significant enough amounts to raise bubbles under Korra's skin when she bent it out. Even if Katara couldn't recognize it for what it was, that that much foreign matter was in Korra's body unnoticed by the world's master healer? Though the idea that that much matter was in her own body and Korra couldn't tell is consistency bordering on Fridge Brilliance. Korra's never been very introspective or self-aware (see: her struggles with spirituality) so the idea she didn't know her own body well enough to tell makes perfect sense. As does the idea that she'd try to fix this by going walkabout and trying to find an answer, thinking the issue was all in her head.

Did Jinora really...

• Earn her tattoos? I mean, I'm not saying that she wasn't a talented airbender, but I can't help but think that she didn't actually earn her tattoos quite yet. We never really saw her doing airbending techniques that seemed complicated (most of what we saw her do, Ikki and Meelo did as well), and the line about how she could do everything Tenzin could do seemed like informed attributes to me, as, once again, when we do see her airbend (which isn't very often, now that I think of it), the stuff she does seems to be fairly simple. Not to mention the fact that, if I remember correctly, part of the requirement to get mastery tattoos is to develop a new technique....What technique did Jinora develop? You could argue her astral projection, but that's more spiritual than airbending related, not to mention the fact that a technique should at least potentially be able to be learned by anyone, and Book 2 proved that some people, even in the Air Nation, aren't that spiritual.
  • Developing a new technique isn't a requirement, otherwise you would not have nearly as many airbending tattoos going around — there is, logically, only so many ways that you can move air about, and after ten thousand years, there's no way that there are enough undiscovered for the number of tattoos we see in Aang's flashbacks. Aang developing the new technique acted as kind of a 'skip' to some of the Airbending Master requirements (kind of like how in Star Wars: Clone Wars, they make Anakin a Knight because, although he hasn't gone through the formalized trials, fighting in the war counts).
  • Um, she kinda sorta basically found a way to save the Avatar and defeat Zaheer. That was probably more than enough evidence for Tenzin that she earned her tattoos.
  • As the fridge page notes, Jinora did invent a new airbending technique—she coordinated the New Air Nation to make a tornado. Though the point about that not being the only way to earn the tattoos is a good one.
  • We have to remember, 'giant tornado being a valid new technique' or not, Jinora maintained that giant tornado for a good deal of time. By herself. And yes, the other airbenders were there, but by the looks of it, all they essentially did was control the air currents to help form the tornado and give it power... but the one actually controlling the tornado itself was Jinora. That's pretty damn impressive for an 11-year-old no matter how you look at it.

Why did Kya lose so badly to Ming-Hua?

• When Kya fought Zaheer, she put up a damn good fight, even if she lost. What else would you expect from the girl trained by the world's greatest waterbender. But when Kya fights Ming-Hua, she fails badly. She was on the defensive for the whole fight, and only managed one good hit on Ming-Hua.
  • Zaheer has only been a bender for a few weeks, whereas Ming-Hua has been one for her whole life, so it would make sense that she's a better fighter. You'll notice that in the fight between Tenzin and Zaheer, Tenzin clearly has the upper hand until the rest of the Red Lotus comes to help Zaheer. As for why Kya doesn't match up to Ming-Hua even though she's older and has been trained by Katara, there's a simple answer to that. Ever since the end of the hundred year war, it seems the Avatar world has been fairly peaceful. Katara had to quickly learn to use her waterbending for combat because she grew up during wartime and had to fight all the time. But Kya has lived her whole life during peacetime, and she appears to have kind of a hippie-ish personality, so it's perfectly possible she didn't put that much effort into mastering the martial arts. Waterbending has many practical, non-violent uses, so Kya could still be a waterbending master without being a master fighter. Ming-Hua, on the other hand, is a member of a violent revolutionary group, so she's probably done a lot more violent waterbending than Kya.
  • Kya is never really established as a superb bender. Kya is probably just loads better at it.

Did Lin Have A Point?

• It seems that the writers made a fumble by trying to justify why Lin was in the wrong for not wanting to reconcile with Suyin; Jerkass Has a Point in that Su never apologized onscreen for scarring Lin and putting her in the awkward position of having to arrest her kid sister. Su conveniently left that bit out of the story when explaining to Korra, and she doesn't ever seem to face any punishment apart from permanent exile. Granted Lin was a Jerkass towards Opal, who may have not known the details when trying to repair the grudge, but that seemed more like a writing fumble so that the audience would share the No Sympathy that Toph bestowed on Lin in the past. Lin has a Fatal Flaw in holding grudges, but family betrayal and Su's refusal to take responsibility for her actions seem like a legitimate reason to hold a grudge and not trust her.
  • It felt to me like Suyin had taken the attitude of "We had decades to hash this out - like I did with our mother. But you'd rather hold grudges and see me as the same girl I was, not the woman I am. You're looking for apologies from someone who hasn't existed for twenty years." Could Suyin have met her half way? Sure. But even as Suyin may have been wrong, Lin wasn't right. It also felt to me that Lin was looking less for an apology and more for an admission of guilt. Don't forget she was just as angry on Toph's behalf (thinking letting Suyin get away cost Toph her position as Chief).
  • Honestly, if I were Lin I'd be twice as angry as Lin was in canon because Toph covered up Su's crime so that she wouldn't have to step down as chief, only to step down later, which made the coverup meaningless. (We do have an estranged relative in the family, and all the bad blood is there despite attempts at reconciliation.) Not to mention that I'd share Lin's skepticism that after all failed attempts at keeping her sister out of trouble, that it took twenty years of traveling for Suyin to grow up, that Lin may as well have not bothered and let Suyin remain a juvenile delinquent, perhaps even arrested by another cop that wouldn't let Toph cover up Su's arrest warrant. It makes me wish that Lin had calmly asked for Su's family to leave her alone during the stay in Zaofu, instead of being written as a Jerkass, so that she could maintain an equilibrium of peace.
  • Toph didn't let Su go to save her job (it essentially cost he her her job); she let her go so she wouldn't have to put her own daughter in prison. And that just exemplifies Lin's Black-and-White Morality view of the world: Because Suyin didn't confess her sins and beg forgiveness, she must be the same selfish, petty thug she was twenty years ago. Also, it was a well-established part of Lin's character by that point that she holds grudges.
  • It was less begging for forgiveness and more acknowledging what she did was wrong. Suiyin’s "We had decades to hash this out - like I did with our mother. But you'd rather hold grudges and see me as the same girl I was, not the woman I am. You're looking for apologies from someone who hasn't existed for twenty years" doesn’t hold up because not only did she never apologize but was incredibly passive aggressive with her look at all my riches which I could never have had if I was punished. Yes they are both wrong and not holding a grudge is a good moral it just that it places all of the blame on Lin’s shoulders while Suiyin get’s off relatively lightly. She blatently withheld the full story from Korra when she asked her what happened between the two while taking any chance she could to be little her. It also doesn’t help that after they made up Lin was repeatedly Wolfed as well as repeatedly sacrificed herself to save Suiyin.
    • And let’s not forget; Toph isn’t the one who got scarred across the cheek as a result of Suyin’s rebellious actions. Every time Lin looked in the mirror, she was reminded of that day, and what her sister did. The fact that Su didn’t seem all that remorseful about it, even years later, doesn’t help as well.

Bystander Syndrome

• How come Lin didn't help Su bend the mercury out of Korra's body?
  • Lin probably didn't know how to. She is a metal bender and a cop, but she's no doctor. That may have been better off for Suyin to do.

Staying out of the Avatar State

• Zaheer openly tells Korra of his plans to force her into the Avatar State before he kills her. Assuming she's also aware of this, couldn't Raava just keep Korra from entering it? She's the reason it happens - doesn't she have any method of controlling it?
  • I'd imagine the avatar state is a reflexive defense mechanism in much the same way your white blood cells are to your body. You can't really turn off your own healing.
  • Just as Korra is willing to die to save others, Raava is willing to die to save Korra. Yes, it's more logical to just accept the death of this one person for the sake of doing future good but that's not the kind of spirit Raava is.

Why didn't Korra bend the poison out?

• When Korra was fighting Zaheer in the avatar state, why didn't she bend the poison out of her system? She didn't seem fully in control, so I'm assuming she was in a reactionary state. "The danger is inside of me and I can get rid of it" seems like a perfectly rational conclusion for a defense mechanism meant to save the avatar's life to draw.
  • You half answered the question ("Wasn't fully in control"). The other half is: By the time Zaheer was dealt with, Korra was in no condition to get rid of the poison herself. (And as we discovered in Season 4, she probably wouldn't have gotten it all anyway.)
  • It's also unlikely that she would've been able to bend with the crazy-psycho airbender attacking her. Zaheer really was the immediate threat in that situation.
  • "Perfectly rational conclusion" is not something anyone should expect from a reflexive defense mechanism. Or does your flinching reflex know to differentiate between a rock flying at your face and a fly that just happened to flit in front of your eyes?
  • Korra's also an amateur metalbender and wasn't taught how to bend metal out of a body, even Suyin, who has had that kind of training and has spent her life metalbending, didn't do it properly. If Korra had tried in the state she was in she probably would have killed herself.

Excessively cruel imprisonment for the Red Lotus members

• Alright, so after their first capture, the four main members of the Red Lotus weren't executed for their heinous crimes, instead being jailed for life. That sort of punishment is believable for benevolent rulers during a time of peace...except what they did was iflict an entire lifetime of cruelty and hellish conditions on them instead. P'Li was imprisoned in a perpetually below-freezing environment and never allowed any source of warmth, while Ming-Hua was meant to spend the rest of her life suspended above a volcano, barely given enough water to survive. All four of them were condemned to solitary confinement forever, a punishment that does severe psychological damage to real-world prisoners in as little as a few days. While the conditions were necessary for people of their abilities, with the immense and ongoing resources poured into keeping them incarcerated, how was it not decided that execution was the more merciful alternative to them being tortured for life?
  • Considering in the original series, no one brings up the idea of having someone else kill Ozai when Aang was worried he didn't have the guts for it, I would guess that the world of Avatar doesn't believe in inflicting the death penalty, regardless of how much more effective it would be in certain cases than lifelong imprisonment. Alternatively, they kept them alive in the hope that they would one day explain what they had planned by trying to capture the Avatar when she was a toddler.
    • They didn't suggest someone else kill Ozai because Aang was the only one who could do it without massive political consequences. It's the same reason Zuko had to become the new firelord and not Iroh.
    • Aang fights Ozai in the middle of Earth Kingdom wilderness with no one else around but the rest of Team Avatar. (Toph, Sokka, and Suki, specifically.) If it were only about avoiding political repercussions, that could've been accomplished by anyone else killing Ozai and then saying that Aang did it. Yes, Aang probably would've objected to that on moral grounds, but from a practical vantage, there's no reason it couldn't be done that way.

Escaping the Air Temple

• I haven't watched this show in a while and don't really feel like going back to it, but from what I remember, the airbenders couldn't escape the temple because the Red Lotus had an airship with a combustion bender that kept them from reaching the flying bison. However, when Tenzin and a few others become physically trapped inside the temple, he suggests they escape using a hidden tunnel. If he knew about that all along, why weren't the airbenders evacuated through there instead of trying to use the bison?
  • Because Tenzin was the one whop knew about the tunnel and he was busy fighting off Zaheer. And during the initial attack the Red Lotus attacked them by surprise and took hostages.

Why only airbenders in the Earth Kindom

• Why do airbenders only ever appear in the Earth Kingdom? If they do appear in the Fire Nation or the Water Tribes it's never mentioned and no acts like they would ever need to check, even though getting as many airbender recruits as possible was a big part of season 3.
  • In order to be an airbender one has to be a descendant of an airbender. The Fire Nation was actively trying to exterminate them all so there were unlikely to be any left there to pass down the genes, the Water Tribes are at opposite poles of the world, difficult forairbenders to get to even when they're not being actively hinted and to make matters worse the two tribes suffered a lot of deaths over the years as the fire nation wore them down. The Earth Kingdom is the only nation both close enough and large enough for airbenders to really have a chance of escaping into and successfully hiding long enough to have children. There might be a couple in the other nations but the vast majority are going to be in the Earth Kingdom.

Why did Zaheer kill...

• Why did Zaheer kill Aiwei? He was angry that Aiwei exposed them and led Korra to their location, but Zaheer was able to communicate with his team and warn them to head Korra off so it doesn't seem like they were in any extreme danger, and as far as I can tell none of their plans were seriously disrupted.
  • As Zaheer said to him, Aiwei was a loose end/ liability. The Metal Clan, and Team Avatar, knew he was involved with the Red Lotus, and would definitely press him for more information if they caught him. Zaheer and the gang may have been able to stay quiet for years under the most threading conditions, but Aiwei may not have been able to hold out.

Why did they have firebenders look after Ghazan? On a wooden prison?

• Is the wood just flameproof? Are the guards just that careful?

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