One of the first phrases of Zuko in AtLA was "I need to capture the Avatar". One of the first phrases of Zuko in LoK was "The Avatar must be protected".
Fun fact: at age 20, Zuko found a juvenile dragon that he named Druk. As the years passed, Druk grew up to become Zuko's faithful companion, and the two flew around the world together. He is a dragon descended from the ancient firebending masters Ran and Shaw from the original series.
I love the parallel between Bumi using airbending to catch the plate and King Bumi throwing food at Aang to expose him as an Airbender. It was perfection!
Zahere basically taught himself the theory when he was a non-bender - he studied the teachings of the past airbender masters and when he suddenly gained airbending, he already understood it all.
@@StephenKendall I assume that is spoken of in one of the comics or other things as it isn't in the animated series itself, which is all I have watched, but definitely, suddenly having bending would not teach you how to move, and from what we see, he is a good martial artist, speaking as someone who has years of study in a soft style martial art that is similar to Bāguà zhǎng [8 trigram palm] which is used in the Avatar world for airbending. I trained in Zhú quán [Bamboo Fist] which comes from the same roots, so although the moves are not the same, they are similar enough to be familiar and they did a good job of portraying the movements in the animation - good enough that I can see he is an excellent martial artist, which supports your statement well.
@@StephenKendall Very true, though I think before he got airbending a big part of it was that he was the leader - both the brains planning things and the charisma to motivate people. Still, I don't doubt he was also dangerous in a fight.
Spoiler alert: In a later episode we do see the limits of Zaheer's self taught airbending. He is an amazing martial artist and studied alot of Airbender philosophy, but when he goes one on one with Tenzin we see the difference. Tenzin spent a lifetime studying Airbending specifically and totally outclasses Zaheer. Zaheer relies on his martial arts knowledge and tactical mind to make up for his lack of practical experience in airbending.
The thing with Zaheer is that he was lethal as a master of martial arts and locked away as a non-bender. And that was _before_ Harmonic Convergence. So he can use the swiftness of his movements and martial arts moves in tandem with his airbending to become _that much_ scarier.
Korra is definitely growing, it was good to see her people skills improving to, she did a good job emphasising with Daw and talking him down from the bridge and talking with Kai.
These opening episodes are a masterclass of introducing new villains, establishing them as a clear threat, and making you invested in them without giving you an ounce of information about them. Leaving you eager for more down the road. From their unique abilities, some good voice acting, and, of course, the fact that they each have their own Kung Fu Panda Prisons that were designed specifically for them. Love it.
The fact that zaheer needs to have his own special prison just for himself when he was a non bender makes it crystal clear how dangerous he is as Just a normal human man, and now he has airbending
I've said it a thousand times, but I'll say it again... Your reaction to Bumi airbending, and then the moment you realized that old man was ZUKO!!! This is why I love your channel. Season 3 of Korra is my favorite, and I am so excited to see your journey unfold!
The crazy think about grey is she's like the sweetest thing. And yet behind the microphone she can play the most evil sadistic villains. Azula as a prime example
Henry rollins did such an incrdible job with the calm thoughtful menace and intensity of a villain like zaheer, and our beloved grey griffin is always the first choice for any good villainess
The creators explained that Zaheer was actually partially inspired by the actor voicing him, he helped creating the character (you can also see the physical resemblance).
It took a rewatch for me to get the parallel of Bumi being caught as an airbender by having thrown something at him and Aang being caught the same way by King Bumi way back in Atla.
Zaheer has studied Airbending as a martial art and philosophy his whole life, that's why he has a bit of a head start to other people who just discovered that they can do it. But he also seems much more masterful than he is because people just don't know how to deal with airbenders, since they have been gone for 170 years.
My theory, before he join the red lotus, he's an air acolyte, that's why he already knew airbending teachnique, Guru Laghima and recognized Tenzin's family
The show never mentions it, but if you pay attention to Zaheer's fighting style he's not actually using Airbender techniques because he was a non-bender all his life. He's just using air to enhance his normal martial arts moves, which turns out to be very effective because most people don't have any experience fighting an Airbender. SInce he's an Air Nomad buff he basically just extrapolated and adapted what he thought would work with his fighting style based on what he knew about Airbending.
“this series is maturing the way a teenage girl matures” is such a good way to put it which is why although I love season 3 I think season 4 is my favorite. korra grows so much over the course of the show and it’s lovely to watch
@@hv8763 book 2 is better, the only bad (or just meh) episodes I can think of in book 2 are Avatar Day, the Swamp (but not really) and tales of ba sing Se (Iroh’s is good but the rest are just boring filler). The only good episodes prior to the invasion in book 3 are Sokka’s master, The beach, the avatar and the firelord, and the puppet master
This season is my favourite. Zaheer and his crew are the best villains, and their bending abilities are truly breathtaking and awe-inspiring. I *love* that we get to see more of what happens when you push the bending of each element to its absolute limits! I also adore that sort of calm, philosophical menace that Zaheer conveys. I call it "The Thrawn Effect." Zuko looks so much like his great-grandfather, and the Dragon only completes the image. I was so happy to see him return in this.
One has to presume that even the non-bending members of the White Lotus would be trained in martial arts. Zaheer is clearly a devotee of Air Nomad philosophy and therefore presumably the martial arts their bending is based upon (bagua).
@@btgardener39 I meant more, that he can’t actually airbend so he can’t know if he’s good, from the moment he gets the ability to airbend he’s one of the best in the world
That's the thing about Zaheer - he might not have had bending before now, but he was incredibly well-versed in the _art_ of it regardless. It's just that to him, it was a martial art, without any of the actual bending effects; but just because he wasn't producing any air doesn't mean he couldn't still train the motions, and learn the philosophy.
Air bending, like any other bending, are based on a real martial art, so it makes perfect sense that you could train in a bending style and use it as normal fist-to-fist martial art you are basically doing the reverse of what the people who made avatar did. He basically invented Baguazhang
the reason why Zaheer is so good at airbending because he is a master martial artist also he loves airbending culture... bendig is an extension of your movements punches kicks etc... so basically he just fights the way he used to before he had bending... just with an extra kick to it now.. :)
I’m excited just see how you react to everything going forward! I kind of look at Season 2 as the setup for the second half of the series. It was necessary for what is to come! It gets a lot of hate, but the biggest thing was Korra making the choice, as the avatar, to leave the sprit portals open. Because of that choice, we get to see so much happen. She changed the world of avatar, and we have to thank season 2 for that!
I think it also is a pretty logical progression from ATLA. Aang really didn't make many big decisions, beyond not killing the fire lord and letting Zuko join he otherwise tended to do what other people told him to do (partly because of the nature of that story but also due to his age). Whereas Korra has always been wanting to make decisions for herself, though often reverting to what others tell her when she doesn't feel confident in herself. It's interesting to watch how Tenzin's treatment of her develops. While it starts with him making the choices for her he ends up towards the end of season 2 being more confident in Korra than she is in herself. To the point where Korra initially asks Tenzin for what to do about the portals but he redirects it back to her acknowledging her as capable of making these choices for herself
I see a lot of season 2 as having to partially undo some of the "neat" end to season 1, but needing to fit ideas that were already maybe in place: if they knew they had the second season, I could see much more of Korra's reconnecting to he spiritual side and regaining her bending tied in more to start of season 2. Having Lin without her bending for the start of the season could also go some way to warranting her out-of-character attitude.
The fact that Bumi proved that he could air bend in the exact same way King Bumi got Aang to air bend when he first got to Omashu is one of my favourite parallels between ATLA and Korra.
The cut from Tenzin saying "Who knows who's out there right now, discovering the gift of airbending for the first time!" straight to Zaheer's cell is so, so good on a rewatch. Man, I love the Avatar-verse :') .
I love Kai. He was meant to be sort of a darker parallel to Aang - they're both mischievous airbender kids, but Kai's willing to take things a lot further than Aang would (such as stealing).
This is a great season. Lot of people come down on S2, but it sets the stage for everything that follows in S3 & S4. The series seriously matures in S3 in shocking ways. I have the Blu-ray for the series. In the commentary, the creators talk about how they frequently had to leave notes for animators to draw Korra’s arms more muscular.
Angela seeing Shirtless Tenzin gives me life because I had the exact same reaction. My guy is ripped as hell. It's must be all that meditation and spiral movements 😛
And with Zaheer voiced by Henry Rollins we have another Korra villain that reminds me of the 90s. I love these villains, they do a great job of showing how capable they are. Just Zaheer as a non-bender being locked away in an isolated prison under heavy guard tells you enough about the danger he poses.
Zuko in ATLA season 1 : "I must capture the Avatar" Zuko in LOK: " the Avatar must be protected" bro 😭😭😭😭😭😭 thats character growth ❤❤❤😭😭 i was crying! Also Zuko looks soooo much like Roku and Sozin mixed ❤❤❤😭😭😭😭
Having watched ATLA and the LOK when they were first televised, It makes me happy to see people now watching them and loving them just as much as I did
Korra's getting the full superhero experience now. Save the world and people cheer, but once it's been saved and there's a mess, who do they complain to? Sure, they can blame the villain, but they're usually gone by then, so the last one standing gets the blame.
Book 1 of ATLA: king Bumi throws something at Aang that revealed to everyone that he's an airbender Book 3 of LOK: Meelo throws something at Bumi that revaled to everyone that he's an airbender.
This is one of my favorite seasons of Korra. The show had a few stumbles in earlier seasons but they played down the foundations to write something amazing. It also feels like a return to their origins. Republic city became a less exciting as a setting and more restrictive. now the whole world can be explored again. I don't know what it is about Aladdin style rascals like Wan and Kai, and even Aang that makes them so endearing. Korra choosing this as her mission also is so empowering. She had to do season 1 to learn Airbending and react to Aman. She had to do Season 2 because she needed to deal with the spirits and deal with Harmonic convergence, but ever since she left the portal open she has shaped her world through her choices. She didnt need to try to rebuild the Air Nation, she chose it and chose not to "fix" the vines and regulating the Spirits. that would have been her reacting and trying to reset the world to the expectation of others and a return to the status Quo. this is also the first time she truly isn't following orders, like the white lotus or Tenzin, she is guiding them now. Finally Tenzin having his people return, and also freeing him of the burden of being the last and only Airbenders. It creates so many possibilities and gives him and his people a whole new future to shape. Airbenders filling the temples... that simple line destroys me. It is so full of innocent hope.
The funny thing about what she says she wants from the third season in the intro is that she's gonna get EVERYTHING she wanted and more. I'm so excited to see and hear her reaction to this season.
Season 3 is definitely a GREAT season to show how limited AND limitless bending the elements can be. Never would I have thought of the possibilities without this season. Enjoy it!
Definitely my favorite season. Zuko's dragon is the "gemstone" from the Sun warriors episode, that you suspected of being a dragon egg in the last Airbender.
ATLA was Aang learning to become more than hisself & his teachings to become Avatar, while this is Korra, who was “the Avatar” from very young, learning to become more than just ‘The Avatar’ & be a person
When I first watched the series back when it aired, I never thought to look at who the voice actors were so hearing that Henry Rollins voiced in this, and that gray came back is kind of a shock to me
the fire lord reveal is amazing, one might think they keep trying to force old characters into the show, but hey ARE part of the world, like the relationship with rokku and the old firelord in TLOA
Zuko majorly resembles his maternal great grandfather Roku, but also has a touch of his paternal great grandfather Sozin with that beard. Hits hard after Iroh's reveal that they're both his great grandfathers, hence his constant internal battles between good and evil when he was younger 🥺
Lin Beifong did not act out of character when she arrested Mako. Lin has always been about the law. Yes, she took Mako onto the force, but when "evidence" was presented that Mako had broken the law, she took the responsibility onto herself to detain Mako. Once the truth was revealed and Mako was released, she fired the two detectives who had been involved in presenting that "evidence" and promoted Mako to detective.
I love old Zuko’s design so much. He‘a designed to combine elements of Uncle Iroh and Avatar Roku. In fact, if you look past the scar, he’s basically just Roku with Iroh’s beard and facial features. I think they did a really fantastic job at aging him up.
I feel like this illustrates the potential Legend of Korra always had if Nickelodeon just trusted them from the beginning. Despite already going through the first big ideas, they get assurance of more seasons and then knock it out of the park with this!
Remeber when somewhere in the middle on season 2 you started talking how in Atla the big bad was a firebender, and Korra had two waterbending big bads in a row, and started musing that we probably would get an earthbending bigbad, but probably there won't be any airbendning villains? Well. About that... :D
The best season without a doubt, I'm so happy, introducing the best villain zaheer, the character development in this season is incredible, the fight scenes are very TOP, Korrasami more and more present, more participation of Kya and Bumi which I love. ZUKO!!!! IT'S EPIC. BEST SEASON WITHOUT A DOUBT
Ghazan being able to Lavabend is a pretty big deal, as only Avatars had shown the ability to do it before (Avatar Szeto was able to force the magma out of active Volcanoes, and Avatar Kyoshi when she split Kyoshi Island from the mainland). Ghazan is definitely my favorite villain team member, apart from Zaheer.
This season is a great example of taking a season that was unpopular and leveraging all of the meaningfulness that absolutely nevertheless came from it (because, as we know "true wisdom begins when we accept things as they are" - Tenzin) to make powerful, poignant, personal-history-backed glorious drama. This season is going to be a blast. My favorite.
i knew you would be thrilled to see zuko, it's such a treat whenever we get to meet one of the gaang in the legend of korra. i wish they explained where he got the dragon but it's so cool to see him with one.
Angela’s reaction to jacked Tenzin was EXACTLY what I expected. 😂 Also, I’ll be honest, Bumi airbending was a hard spoiler to be sitting on over the last few months.
Never will I ever understand the pure hatred season 2 gets, ever. Season 2 doesnt suffer from poor writing or anything like that, it suffered from awful people in charge. Telling the team to wrap up Korra in season 1, then telling them again to wrap up all of Korea for season 2, changing the animation studio to save a ton of money, every higher up decision just harmed the team trying to make Korra and trying to make it special. When people hate on the writers and animators and everyone instead of Nickelodeon I feel so bad. After season 2 the team was finally allowed to make 2 seasons, so they could write the story to be a 2 season series and it shows, seasons 3 and 4 are considered the best because the studio was finally able to create what they wanted to make without stupid limitations. Unfortunately Nickelodeon found a way to harm the studio again even in season 3 and 4. The studio wanted to include positive lgbtq+ representation, Nickelodeon was heavy against it, the studio didnt listen and went through with it anyways. As a response, season 4 was never allowed to air on Nickelodeon, it was never on tv. The only way one could watch season 4 was to wait for the episode to be placed on the Nickelodeon website and that was the only way. The studio getting hate will always make me feel so sad. They wanted to aim for perfection and do something special after Angs story, they just weren't given the chance
29:53 It is never stated anywhere, but my guess is that Zaheer was either an Air Acolyte or at least someone who had an an intense interest in Air Nomads of the past. Considering how easily he took to it, his ability to recite Guru Laghima's Legend from heart despite being in a cage, one would infer that he practiced movements and arts reminiscent of air bending (like Ba Gua) and was at least quite learned of the culture. To me, that screams Air Acolyte.
I sense in future generations there might be a tension between Jinora's peace loving by the books airbending and Meelo's commander instincts which he seems to follow in his line of uncles. I hope that is explored in the next Earth bending series especially in how interventiony the airbenders should be when they are trying to do good.
I can absolutely see one of the Air Temples become more militarised; perhaps Air Temple Island itself, considering is proximity to Republic City. Not to spoil, but we do get to see just how effective Airbenders are at covert/stealth missions as the series continues.
The reason Zaheer is such a talented airbender is because a) he is a devout scholar of airbending philosophy, which is the basis for his belief in anarchism, and b) his fighting-style before gaining bending was based on airbending techniques. It was basically just bagua, the real life martial art that airbending is based on. He already had all the tools and technique required to be an airbender, he just didn’t have the gift. As soon as he got it, it was like the final piece of a puzzle snapping into place.
So, we know from the comics that some of the Air Nomads escaped the genocide and may have had children. None that became airbenders, but their genetics would have spread. There’s a theory that Tai Lee was descended for Air Nomads and not only that, but everyone who’s getting Airbending now were descended from those Nomads. The biggest proof of this is Bumi. Non bending son of an airbender who gets bending.
Which comic? I know there were people who decided to become Air Acolytes without bending, but I don't think I heard about any actual Air Nomads surviving.
You remember when you said we'd never see an evil airbender? ;) I love that you appreciate Bumi so much, since the season basically opens with him getting a great power-up. Also, your discussion about the writing for Lin... curious to see what you think about her arc coming up!
Oh yeah... Time for *the* season! Also, I've always chuckled when Tenzin asks if they really want their first recruit to be a liar and a thief. The first Avatar was a liar and a thief. 😄
Zaheer's taunt about rationing the food at the end always makes me chuckle because, like... They're all benders. The prison was designed with a non-bender in mind (one with incredible martial prowess, true, but still a non-bender) - they just need a moment to catch their breath and nurse their bruises.
Yup! Boomi is an Air Bender now, and that's why this book is called Change, more changes are coming! Both Season 3 and 4 are great and there is one bad episode in season 4, but everything else from the beginning of this season to the end of season 4 is phenomenal.
The happiest and most excited I ever was as an Avatar fan was when I watched this season for the first time back in 2014. This was the point when the already expansive world-building of Avatar was opening up even more.
It's so sad that Aang and all the other avatars are lost to Korra, but if I try to think of anything that Aang would be happy to make that sacrifice for, it would be to rebuild the air nation and fill the air temples with bending again. Aang would be so happy.
34:39 yes we saw in the avatar aang intro a old avatar bendinf vulcanos Same with roku could lavabend too Oh and remember avatar kiyoshi? Split those islands and fire appeared? She was also lavabending
EDIT: Obviously spoilery after this point. Do not read @@Moesie It makes complete sense. If waterbenders can freeze water, earthbenders should be able to melt rocks.
@@masansr not thats not how sciense work Since water and ice are the same element Melting rocks is something a firebender could do. But an earth bender doesnt have fire powers unless he is half breed firebender. Also wouldnt that say that water benders should also be able to melt ice and boil the water? How can eart benders melt earth but water benders can't?
@@masansr yeah but to be able to melt earth u need to have some fire power But earth benders are not related to firepower except firebenders Thats why it doesnt make sense With metal it made sense cuz metal has eart init But lavabenders?
Yaaaaay!! Now we can finally let it out about what's awesome about season 3 lol, airbenders!! And ___ and ____ and ____. Omg so much this season. Can't wait for you to see what a breath of fresh air this season is ; ) Everyone no spoilers :X
I like to think that, when Bumi was in the Republic City Navy specializing in search-and-rescue missions, that's just what he was told he was doing. But his superiors knew if they sent him into "search-and-rescue" someone, he's going mess up the enemy along the way.
SO HAPPY YOU GOT TO SEE MING HUA FINALLY she’s an insane bender and easily has one of the best designs and applications of bending due to not having arms. AND ZUKO AHHHHHHH
In a hypothetical Earth Avatar followup, the only avatar that Earthbender is going to be able to talk to is Korra. The other avatars are gone from Raava's spirit.
I actually think that would make a brilliant quest for a new Avatar: searching for a way to connect to the past Avatars. You could weave it into a narrative about what it means to be the Avatar in a modernising world.
One of the first phrases of Zuko in AtLA was "I need to capture the Avatar".
One of the first phrases of Zuko in LoK was "The Avatar must be protected".
Sounds like The change in Attack on titan
Fun fact: at age 20, Zuko found a juvenile dragon that he named Druk. As the years passed, Druk grew up to become Zuko's faithful companion, and the two flew around the world together. He is a dragon descended from the ancient firebending masters Ran and Shaw from the original series.
Just like his great grandfather
was drug the Egg from that episode?
@@MusikCassette I think the show people confirmed that it was.
Can't wait for episode 10 it will leave you "breathless".
@@anthonydean1743 and episode 12 will blow your mind
Zuko looks like his maternal great grandfather, Avatar Roku.
Tiene la barba de su bisabuelo zozin y el peinado de su bisabuelo roku
Except with irohs beard
I love the parallel between Bumi using airbending to catch the plate and King Bumi throwing food at Aang to expose him as an Airbender. It was perfection!
Wow. I didn't know that was a thing, but it makes a lot of sense! Nicely spotted!
Not only that, but the air sphere that Bumi used to stop the plate was the exact same move that Aang used to stop KIng Bumi's
I NEVER CAUGHT THAT 😮
@@FirePuff12 but Bumi did ;)
@@mranima748 LMAOOOOO
40:34 She knew Tenzin was a father but didn't realize he was a daddy until now.
HAHAHAHA 🤣
Tenzin is an airbender...he took her breath away. 😉
That vegetarian diet. lol
Ming-Hua IS THE SICKEST WATERBENDER!!!!!
She's just like Toph and I love it! Using one's bending to overcome her disability is such genius writing.
🥰
I’ve seen images of a young Red Lotus where Ming Hua has her arms. Could they have been removed as a consequence of her crimes?
@@carlosbermudez537 I don’t think that’s canon unfortunately, but I doubt she would be so efficient with armless bending if that was the case
Agreed I love the way disabilities are represented in being a person with cerebral palsy I love to see it.
@@carlosbermudez537Not 100% but I believe it was confirmed that she was born without arms
Zahere basically taught himself the theory when he was a non-bender - he studied the teachings of the past airbender masters and when he suddenly gained airbending, he already understood it all.
And he was already a very capable martial artist without bending
@@StephenKendall I assume that is spoken of in one of the comics or other things as it isn't in the animated series itself, which is all I have watched, but definitely, suddenly having bending would not teach you how to move, and from what we see, he is a good martial artist, speaking as someone who has years of study in a soft style martial art that is similar to Bāguà zhǎng [8 trigram palm] which is used in the Avatar world for airbending. I trained in Zhú quán [Bamboo Fist] which comes from the same roots, so although the moves are not the same, they are similar enough to be familiar and they did a good job of portraying the movements in the animation - good enough that I can see he is an excellent martial artist, which supports your statement well.
@@TheFireMonkey and the simple fact that he was put in that level of prison as a non bender shows that he was a serious threat.
@@StephenKendall Very true, though I think before he got airbending a big part of it was that he was the leader - both the brains planning things and the charisma to motivate people. Still, I don't doubt he was also dangerous in a fight.
Spoiler alert:
In a later episode we do see the limits of Zaheer's self taught airbending. He is an amazing martial artist and studied alot of Airbender philosophy, but when he goes one on one with Tenzin we see the difference. Tenzin spent a lifetime studying Airbending specifically and totally outclasses Zaheer. Zaheer relies on his martial arts knowledge and tactical mind to make up for his lack of practical experience in airbending.
I like Zuko's old man design. He has his uncle's beard and Avatar Roku's hair
The thing with Zaheer is that he was lethal as a master of martial arts and locked away as a non-bender. And that was _before_ Harmonic Convergence. So he can use the swiftness of his movements and martial arts moves in tandem with his airbending to become _that much_ scarier.
Korra is definitely growing, it was good to see her people skills improving to, she did a good job emphasising with Daw and talking him down from the bridge and talking with Kai.
I think you mean empathising 😊
These opening episodes are a masterclass of introducing new villains, establishing them as a clear threat, and making you invested in them without giving you an ounce of information about them. Leaving you eager for more down the road.
From their unique abilities, some good voice acting, and, of course, the fact that they each have their own Kung Fu Panda Prisons that were designed specifically for them.
Love it.
The fact that zaheer needs to have his own special prison just for himself when he was a non bender makes it crystal clear how dangerous he is as Just a normal human man, and now he has airbending
I've said it a thousand times, but I'll say it again... Your reaction to Bumi airbending, and then the moment you realized that old man was ZUKO!!! This is why I love your channel. Season 3 of Korra is my favorite, and I am so excited to see your journey unfold!
Oh yeah, Zuko...
thought that'd get the tearbending going again. 😂😊
Oh yeah pt2, he's got a gd mfkn DRAGON! 😎😎🤘🤘
The crazy think about grey is she's like the sweetest thing. And yet behind the microphone she can play the most evil sadistic villains. Azula as a prime example
And Delila Briarwood in Legend of Vox Machina - she was amazing for that.
Don't forget her most evil character. Icky Vicky! 😂😂
@@michaelash8552 No way. She plays Vicky? Oh my word
I say she did shockingly good job with Ming-Hua
And a bit of a prankster, remember the pregnant Azula joke from that one convention panel?
I love how Bumi got so excited to tell Katara he could airbend. I bet she would love it and be proud of him.
"i Want them to be friends" guuuurl, you are in for an amazing surprise
Henry rollins did such an incrdible job with the calm thoughtful menace and intensity of a villain like zaheer, and our beloved grey griffin is always the first choice for any good villainess
Yeah, I'm pretty sure he didn't know anything about the series, but really liked the idea of the character. He did and incredible job as Zaheer
I didn't realize it was Henry Rollins. That makes me like Zaheer just a little less. But oh well, still a great villain.
The creators explained that Zaheer was actually partially inspired by the actor voicing him, he helped creating the character (you can also see the physical resemblance).
@AlehGea that's fine. I like Zaheer as a villain. I don't like Henry Rollins. You can dislike someone and still enjoy their art.
It took a rewatch for me to get the parallel of Bumi being caught as an airbender by having thrown something at him and Aang being caught the same way by King Bumi way back in Atla.
YESSSS SO HYPED FOR THE BEST SEASON
Edit: omg I'm sorry for being one of those people who hype it up 😭😭😭😭
I also think it's the best season 😍✨❣️
The only Good season actually lol sorry if I’m being biased
Don’t you DARE apologize for being hyped!
It is the best season. The villains and the story are amazing!!!
It’s the one time something got hyped up and it was almost not hyped up enough because it’s so amazing
Zaheer has studied Airbending as a martial art and philosophy his whole life, that's why he has a bit of a head start to other people who just discovered that they can do it.
But he also seems much more masterful than he is because people just don't know how to deal with airbenders, since they have been gone for 170 years.
My theory, before he join the red lotus, he's an air acolyte, that's why he already knew airbending teachnique, Guru Laghima and recognized Tenzin's family
The show never mentions it, but if you pay attention to Zaheer's fighting style he's not actually using Airbender techniques because he was a non-bender all his life. He's just using air to enhance his normal martial arts moves, which turns out to be very effective because most people don't have any experience fighting an Airbender. SInce he's an Air Nomad buff he basically just extrapolated and adapted what he thought would work with his fighting style based on what he knew about Airbending.
Good catch & analysis
Zaheer: It’s an honor to meat a true air bending master
Also Zaheer: Gets his ass kicked by that air bending master
“this series is maturing the way a teenage girl matures” is such a good way to put it which is why although I love season 3 I think season 4 is my favorite. korra grows so much over the course of the show and it’s lovely to watch
While the Legend of Aang was about a human learning to be the Avatar, the Legend of Korra was about the Avatar learning to be a human.
Season 3 Korra is the greatest singular season of the entire franchise
nahh atla season 3 is still better
Nah, this season's ended disappointed me. I won't say why because of spoilers.
@@hv8763 book 2 is better, the only bad (or just meh) episodes I can think of in book 2 are Avatar Day, the Swamp (but not really) and tales of ba sing Se (Iroh’s is good but the rest are just boring filler). The only good episodes prior to the invasion in book 3 are Sokka’s master, The beach, the avatar and the firelord, and the puppet master
@@Neekazan please explain, it’s the best ending of a season imo
@@mranima748 I can't without spoiling anything. Once she sees the season finale, I will say why I was disappointed then.
Korra grabbing Raikos face like that is how we should start dealing with our government 😂
This season is my favourite. Zaheer and his crew are the best villains, and their bending abilities are truly breathtaking and awe-inspiring. I *love* that we get to see more of what happens when you push the bending of each element to its absolute limits! I also adore that sort of calm, philosophical menace that Zaheer conveys. I call it "The Thrawn Effect."
Zuko looks so much like his great-grandfather, and the Dragon only completes the image. I was so happy to see him return in this.
This is what makes Zaheer so terrifying, he can master a bending style on philosophy alone
One has to presume that even the non-bending members of the White Lotus would be trained in martial arts. Zaheer is clearly a devotee of Air Nomad philosophy and therefore presumably the martial arts their bending is based upon (bagua).
@@btgardener39 I meant more, that he can’t actually airbend so he can’t know if he’s good, from the moment he gets the ability to airbend he’s one of the best in the world
SPOILERS
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Zaheer was also going to be Korra’s airbending teacher which says a lot
@@Freshwater121source? Would like to look that up
not mastering... more like advanced user
That's the thing about Zaheer - he might not have had bending before now, but he was incredibly well-versed in the _art_ of it regardless. It's just that to him, it was a martial art, without any of the actual bending effects; but just because he wasn't producing any air doesn't mean he couldn't still train the motions, and learn the philosophy.
Exactly that. And he had years of nothing other than excersizing to do with his time.
Air bending, like any other bending, are based on a real martial art, so it makes perfect sense that you could train in a bending style and use it as normal fist-to-fist martial art you are basically doing the reverse of what the people who made avatar did. He basically invented Baguazhang
Spoilers
And the best part is, you can see he hasn't completely mastered it when he goes against Tenzin, an actual master.
bro leave information from future episodes OUT of your comments
@@KlooKloo This isn't information from future episodes. It's just an obvious logical conclusion.
the reason why Zaheer is so good at airbending because he is a master martial artist also he loves airbending culture... bendig is an extension of your movements punches kicks etc... so basically he just fights the way he used to before he had bending... just with an extra kick to it now.. :)
I’m excited just see how you react to everything going forward!
I kind of look at Season 2 as the setup for the second half of the series. It was necessary for what is to come! It gets a lot of hate, but the biggest thing was Korra making the choice, as the avatar, to leave the sprit portals open. Because of that choice, we get to see so much happen. She changed the world of avatar, and we have to thank season 2 for that!
I think it also is a pretty logical progression from ATLA. Aang really didn't make many big decisions, beyond not killing the fire lord and letting Zuko join he otherwise tended to do what other people told him to do (partly because of the nature of that story but also due to his age).
Whereas Korra has always been wanting to make decisions for herself, though often reverting to what others tell her when she doesn't feel confident in herself. It's interesting to watch how Tenzin's treatment of her develops. While it starts with him making the choices for her he ends up towards the end of season 2 being more confident in Korra than she is in herself. To the point where Korra initially asks Tenzin for what to do about the portals but he redirects it back to her acknowledging her as capable of making these choices for herself
@@scaredscorpionyes Tenzin's growth is very noticeable too. They both developed a lot.
I see a lot of season 2 as having to partially undo some of the "neat" end to season 1, but needing to fit ideas that were already maybe in place: if they knew they had the second season, I could see much more of Korra's reconnecting to he spiritual side and regaining her bending tied in more to start of season 2. Having Lin without her bending for the start of the season could also go some way to warranting her out-of-character attitude.
The fact that Bumi proved that he could air bend in the exact same way King Bumi got Aang to air bend when he first got to Omashu is one of my favourite parallels between ATLA and Korra.
The cut from Tenzin saying "Who knows who's out there right now, discovering the gift of airbending for the first time!" straight to Zaheer's cell is so, so good on a rewatch. Man, I love the Avatar-verse :') .
I love Kai. He was meant to be sort of a darker parallel to Aang - they're both mischievous airbender kids, but Kai's willing to take things a lot further than Aang would (such as stealing).
"Hello, Zuko here!"
Katara: All of my friends are sadly no longer here.....
Zuko: Quit telling everyone I'm dead!
Katara: Sometimes, I can still hear his voice
XD
😂
You got me in that one 😂
😂
This is a great season. Lot of people come down on S2, but it sets the stage for everything that follows in S3 & S4. The series seriously matures in S3 in shocking ways.
I have the Blu-ray for the series. In the commentary, the creators talk about how they frequently had to leave notes for animators to draw Korra’s arms more muscular.
Tenzin's reactions to the new Airbenders this season always get me.
I'M SO STOKED FOR THIS SEASON! i cannot wait to see what you think of it, it's my favorite book.
Angela seeing Shirtless Tenzin gives me life because I had the exact same reaction. My guy is ripped as hell. It's must be all that meditation and spiral movements 😛
And with Zaheer voiced by Henry Rollins we have another Korra villain that reminds me of the 90s.
I love these villains, they do a great job of showing how capable they are. Just Zaheer as a non-bender being locked away in an isolated prison under heavy guard tells you enough about the danger he poses.
Zuko in ATLA season 1 : "I must capture the Avatar"
Zuko in LOK: " the Avatar must be protected" bro 😭😭😭😭😭😭 thats character growth ❤❤❤😭😭 i was crying!
Also Zuko looks soooo much like Roku and Sozin mixed ❤❤❤😭😭😭😭
Having watched ATLA and the LOK when they were first televised, It makes me happy to see people now watching them and loving them just as much as I did
This is peak Korra, in terms of seasons this is the 3rd best behind TLA s2 and s3.
Korra's getting the full superhero experience now. Save the world and people cheer, but once it's been saved and there's a mess, who do they complain to? Sure, they can blame the villain, but they're usually gone by then, so the last one standing gets the blame.
Book 1 of ATLA: king Bumi throws something at Aang that revealed to everyone that he's an airbender
Book 3 of LOK: Meelo throws something at Bumi that revaled to everyone that he's an airbender.
Oh my gosh you’re right!
Ou am jee!!! You are right!!
This is one of my favorite seasons of Korra. The show had a few stumbles in earlier seasons but they played down the foundations to write something amazing.
It also feels like a return to their origins. Republic city became a less exciting as a setting and more restrictive. now the whole world can be explored again.
I don't know what it is about Aladdin style rascals like Wan and Kai, and even Aang that makes them so endearing.
Korra choosing this as her mission also is so empowering. She had to do season 1 to learn Airbending and react to Aman. She had to do Season 2 because she needed to deal with the spirits and deal with Harmonic convergence, but ever since she left the portal open she has shaped her world through her choices. She didnt need to try to rebuild the Air Nation, she chose it and chose not to "fix" the vines and regulating the Spirits. that would have been her reacting and trying to reset the world to the expectation of others and a return to the status Quo. this is also the first time she truly isn't following orders, like the white lotus or Tenzin, she is guiding them now.
Finally Tenzin having his people return, and also freeing him of the burden of being the last and only Airbenders. It creates so many possibilities and gives him and his people a whole new future to shape. Airbenders filling the temples... that simple line destroys me. It is so full of innocent hope.
The funny thing about what she says she wants from the third season in the intro is that she's gonna get EVERYTHING she wanted and more. I'm so excited to see and hear her reaction to this season.
Season 3 is definitely a GREAT season to show how limited AND limitless bending the elements can be.
Never would I have thought of the possibilities without this season. Enjoy it!
47:20 I met Grey last March, and she is as iconic in person as her voice on screen is.
Definitely my favorite season. Zuko's dragon is the "gemstone" from the Sun warriors episode, that you suspected of being a dragon egg in the last Airbender.
It has never been confirmed that Zuko's dragon comes from that egg.
@@anamewillcomelater it makes sense, it’s the only known dragon egg
@@mranima748 I wasn't arguing about whether it makes sense. The comment I replied to stated it as fact.
@@mranima748 the sun stone was not a dragon egg.
It was a sun stone
Nobody ever prepared for hot Tenzin 😂
ATLA was Aang learning to become more than hisself & his teachings to become Avatar, while this is Korra, who was “the Avatar” from very young, learning to become more than just ‘The Avatar’ & be a person
When I first watched the series back when it aired, I never thought to look at who the voice actors were so hearing that Henry Rollins voiced in this, and that gray came back is kind of a shock to me
the fire lord reveal is amazing, one might think they keep trying to force old characters into the show, but hey ARE part of the world, like the relationship with rokku and the old firelord in TLOA
the fact they do it sparingly makes it worth it.
Wow, get ready for arguably the best season of all of TLOK, insane writing, insane animation, insane performance of the cast - truly a treat!
Zuko majorly resembles his maternal great grandfather Roku, but also has a touch of his paternal great grandfather Sozin with that beard. Hits hard after Iroh's reveal that they're both his great grandfathers, hence his constant internal battles between good and evil when he was younger 🥺
Lin Beifong did not act out of character when she arrested Mako.
Lin has always been about the law. Yes, she took Mako onto the force, but when "evidence" was presented that Mako had broken the law, she took the responsibility onto herself to detain Mako.
Once the truth was revealed and Mako was released, she fired the two detectives who had been involved in presenting that "evidence" and promoted Mako to detective.
You know it's going to be the best season 5 minutes in. A fan favorite charachter gets the bending he deserved.
I love old Zuko’s design so much. He‘a designed to combine elements of Uncle Iroh and Avatar Roku. In fact, if you look past the scar, he’s basically just Roku with Iroh’s beard and facial features. I think they did a really fantastic job at aging him up.
HERE WE GO! best bending, best music (the theme music of this season oh my). This season is so hype and more adult themed and perfect!
I feel like this illustrates the potential Legend of Korra always had if Nickelodeon just trusted them from the beginning. Despite already going through the first big ideas, they get assurance of more seasons and then knock it out of the park with this!
Remeber when somewhere in the middle on season 2 you started talking how in Atla the big bad was a firebender, and Korra had two waterbending big bads in a row, and started musing that we probably would get an earthbending bigbad, but probably there won't be any airbendning villains? Well. About that... :D
It seemed like a reasonable assumption at the time 😅
The best season without a doubt, I'm so happy, introducing the best villain zaheer, the character development in this season is incredible, the fight scenes are very TOP, Korrasami more and more present, more participation of Kya and Bumi which I love. ZUKO!!!! IT'S EPIC. BEST SEASON WITHOUT A DOUBT
Ghazan being able to Lavabend is a pretty big deal, as only Avatars had shown the ability to do it before (Avatar Szeto was able to force the magma out of active Volcanoes, and Avatar Kyoshi when she split Kyoshi Island from the mainland).
Ghazan is definitely my favorite villain team member, apart from Zaheer.
This season is a great example of taking a season that was unpopular and leveraging all of the meaningfulness that absolutely nevertheless came from it (because, as we know "true wisdom begins when we accept things as they are" - Tenzin) to make powerful, poignant, personal-history-backed glorious drama. This season is going to be a blast. My favorite.
Zaheer already mastered martial arts, before he got Air Bending. So his knowledge is really high of the Air Nation and Air Bending ability.
i knew you would be thrilled to see zuko, it's such a treat whenever we get to meet one of the gaang in the legend of korra. i wish they explained where he got the dragon but it's so cool to see him with one.
Sun warriors called it a sun stone though
@@lilunette9319 that would be very interesting!
@@joshp3374 yes but it is possible that was just what they called it
Angela’s reaction to jacked Tenzin was EXACTLY what I expected. 😂
Also, I’ll be honest, Bumi airbending was a hard spoiler to be sitting on over the last few months.
45:36 -- 46:21; That, right, there, is another example of watching your reactions... So sensitive. I adore it...
Your excitement in this reaction was palpable, thank you so much for your love and energy
Never will I ever understand the pure hatred season 2 gets, ever. Season 2 doesnt suffer from poor writing or anything like that, it suffered from awful people in charge. Telling the team to wrap up Korra in season 1, then telling them again to wrap up all of Korea for season 2, changing the animation studio to save a ton of money, every higher up decision just harmed the team trying to make Korra and trying to make it special. When people hate on the writers and animators and everyone instead of Nickelodeon I feel so bad. After season 2 the team was finally allowed to make 2 seasons, so they could write the story to be a 2 season series and it shows, seasons 3 and 4 are considered the best because the studio was finally able to create what they wanted to make without stupid limitations. Unfortunately Nickelodeon found a way to harm the studio again even in season 3 and 4. The studio wanted to include positive lgbtq+ representation, Nickelodeon was heavy against it, the studio didnt listen and went through with it anyways. As a response, season 4 was never allowed to air on Nickelodeon, it was never on tv. The only way one could watch season 4 was to wait for the episode to be placed on the Nickelodeon website and that was the only way. The studio getting hate will always make me feel so sad. They wanted to aim for perfection and do something special after Angs story, they just weren't given the chance
29:53
It is never stated anywhere, but my guess is that Zaheer was either an Air Acolyte or at least someone who had an an intense interest in Air Nomads of the past. Considering how easily he took to it, his ability to recite Guru Laghima's Legend from heart despite being in a cage, one would infer that he practiced movements and arts reminiscent of air bending (like Ba Gua) and was at least quite learned of the culture.
To me, that screams Air Acolyte.
also he must’ve been practicing since harmonic convergence was a few weeks prior
I can recite the legend of guru laghima and I’m not devoted to Airbending culture
I have a theory and it’s related to why they wanted to kidnap Korra in the first place.
And now the fun begins
I sense in future generations there might be a tension between Jinora's peace loving by the books airbending and Meelo's commander instincts which he seems to follow in his line of uncles. I hope that is explored in the next Earth bending series especially in how interventiony the airbenders should be when they are trying to do good.
I can absolutely see one of the Air Temples become more militarised; perhaps Air Temple Island itself, considering is proximity to Republic City. Not to spoil, but we do get to see just how effective Airbenders are at covert/stealth missions as the series continues.
My mind was blown when I found out who voiced Zaheer
The reason Zaheer is such a talented airbender is because a) he is a devout scholar of airbending philosophy, which is the basis for his belief in anarchism, and b) his fighting-style before gaining bending was based on airbending techniques. It was basically just bagua, the real life martial art that airbending is based on.
He already had all the tools and technique required to be an airbender, he just didn’t have the gift. As soon as he got it, it was like the final piece of a puzzle snapping into place.
So, we know from the comics that some of the Air Nomads escaped the genocide and may have had children. None that became airbenders, but their genetics would have spread.
There’s a theory that Tai Lee was descended for Air Nomads and not only that, but everyone who’s getting Airbending now were descended from those Nomads.
The biggest proof of this is Bumi. Non bending son of an airbender who gets bending.
Which comic? I know there were people who decided to become Air Acolytes without bending, but I don't think I heard about any actual Air Nomads surviving.
@@kateorgera5907 I can’t remember but they find Air Nomad artifacts in a cave in like… the Fire Nation I think. Maybe the Earth Kingdom.
You remember when you said we'd never see an evil airbender? ;) I love that you appreciate Bumi so much, since the season basically opens with him getting a great power-up.
Also, your discussion about the writing for Lin... curious to see what you think about her arc coming up!
Oh yeah... Time for *the* season! Also, I've always chuckled when Tenzin asks if they really want their first recruit to be a liar and a thief. The first Avatar was a liar and a thief. 😄
Your reactions are SO infectious it's adorable haha.
I LOVE this season, really great journey and sets up season 4 to have a beautiful ending.
Zaheer's taunt about rationing the food at the end always makes me chuckle because, like... They're all benders. The prison was designed with a non-bender in mind (one with incredible martial prowess, true, but still a non-bender) - they just need a moment to catch their breath and nurse their bruises.
They may be able to get out, but how long will it take to get back to civilisation?
I think it’s near the southern air temple, as the pillar Zaheer was on resemble the potala mountain range
Yup! Boomi is an Air Bender now, and that's why this book is called Change, more changes are coming! Both Season 3 and 4 are great and there is one bad episode in season 4, but everything else from the beginning of this season to the end of season 4 is phenomenal.
The happiest and most excited I ever was as an Avatar fan was when I watched this season for the first time back in 2014. This was the point when the already expansive world-building of Avatar was opening up even more.
This is objectively the best Season imo, better than even ATLA’s peak
The so villain team is SO GOOD, it's incredible
It's so sad that Aang and all the other avatars are lost to Korra, but if I try to think of anything that Aang would be happy to make that sacrifice for, it would be to rebuild the air nation and fill the air temples with bending again. Aang would be so happy.
34:39 yes we saw in the avatar aang intro a old avatar bendinf vulcanos
Same with roku could lavabend too
Oh and remember avatar kiyoshi? Split those islands and fire appeared? She was also lavabending
We've seen Avatars bend already existing lava. We haven't seen anyone creating it, without Avatar powers as well..
@@masansr yeah makes no sense, i think avatar writers wanted to be creative lol
EDIT: Obviously spoilery after this point. Do not read
@@Moesie It makes complete sense. If waterbenders can freeze water, earthbenders should be able to melt rocks.
@@masansr not thats not how sciense work
Since water and ice are the same element
Melting rocks is something a firebender could do. But an earth bender doesnt have fire powers unless he is half breed firebender.
Also wouldnt that say that water benders should also be able to melt ice and boil the water? How can eart benders melt earth but water benders can't?
@@masansr yeah but to be able to melt earth u need to have some fire power
But earth benders are not related to firepower except firebenders
Thats why it doesnt make sense
With metal it made sense cuz metal has eart init
But lavabenders?
Yaaaaay!! Now we can finally let it out about what's awesome about season 3 lol, airbenders!! And ___ and ____ and ____. Omg so much this season. Can't wait for you to see what a breath of fresh air this season is ; ) Everyone no spoilers :X
Agreed:: NO SPOILERY!! BUT.....
_.....INVEST in _*_AT LEAST TWO_*_ WHOLE BOXES of tissues!!! TRUST US!!! _*_YOU WILL_*_ NEED THEM!!!_
I knew seeing Zuko again would be a tearbending moment and I wasn’t disappointed! I literally jumped to my feet when I first saw that scene 😂
It begins, welcome to the hype, you will understand why throughout each episode
Zuko styling his hair like Roku and facial hair like Iroh is such a great subtle callback.
I like to think that, when Bumi was in the Republic City Navy specializing in search-and-rescue missions, that's just what he was told he was doing. But his superiors knew if they sent him into "search-and-rescue" someone, he's going mess up the enemy along the way.
SO HAPPY YOU GOT TO SEE MING HUA FINALLY she’s an insane bender and easily has one of the best designs and applications of bending due to not having arms.
AND ZUKO AHHHHHHH
Best book for me in the entire Avatar universe! Absolutely insane this book will be
In a hypothetical Earth Avatar followup, the only avatar that Earthbender is going to be able to talk to is Korra. The other avatars are gone from Raava's spirit.
I actually think that would make a brilliant quest for a new Avatar: searching for a way to connect to the past Avatars.
You could weave it into a narrative about what it means to be the Avatar in a modernising world.
Lifegoal: Find yourself someone who looks at you the way Angela looks at Avatar characters making their first appearance in Korra.
Yessssss!! This season is so good. Your reaction to shirtless Tenzin was HILARIOUS. You crack me up. Thanks for always making me smile
Zaheer(the prisoner) was a great martial artist and an air acolyte before he became a bender, which is why he adapted to it so fast
Hands down the best villains in the entire Avatar franchise (in my opinion). Also love seeing you finally coming to appreciate Oogi!
This is my favourite season of both ATLA and LOK!!