“The Coronation” sets up a lot of conflicts and plot devices that will likely pay off big time later in the season. First and foremost, the ruthless Kuvira has been pushed firmly into “main antagonist” territory. She has the makings of a great villain. She’s savagely intimidating and always gets what she wants; a potentially lethal combination that she demonstrates by publicly denouncing the new Earth King and installing herself as leader of the new Earth Empire.
If there is one thing that The Legend of Korra boasts over The Last Airbender, it’s the villains. While Airbender had Azula, one of the greatest villains ever to come out of children’s animation, none of the series’ other villains were even close to her level. Korra has upped the ante with almost every season, with the exception of season 2. Amon’s abilities threatened Korra’s bending, and Zaheer’s evil airbending threatened her life—also, he could fly. Now we have Kuvira who has caught everyone by surprise and already controls an entire empire.
Elsewhere, Korra recovers in a swamp with Toph Beifong. Toph looks just like she should and more importantly acts just like she did in the days of Aang. Korra begs Toph to train her, but it doesn’t seem like she knew what she was getting in to. Toph tells her to attack with all she’s got, then easily dodges it all and out-bends the Avatar with her hands behind her back. I really love how they animated Toph’s bending, she is clearly changed her style to account for her age but but her bending still feels like the Toph we know and love.
Toph also offers one of the most significant reveals of the season so far: Korra is still weak because there are still bits of metal poison in her body. The weird thing is that Toph, the most skilled metal bender in the world, isnt’t able to pull the poison out, not from lack of skill but simply because Korra wouldn’t let her. She still has PTSD from the fight against Zaheer and any recollection of the event completely shuts her body down.
Book 4 has been so good so far and the issues they are setting up have the potential to make this the best overall season of Korra. What I really want to see by the end of the series is Toph, Zuko and Katara whipping ass like they used to, as we can see that Toph still has the skills. And I feel like I speak for the fandom when I say that it would also be nice to find out who Su and Lin’s fathers are.
Remember, every new episode of Korra airs Fridays around 11:00 am on nick.com.
