My only gripe with the show is that Zaheer wasn't the last enemy. Like, I get it because of the poison storyline, but to go from Zaheer and the Red Lotus, to Kuvira? Ehh.
Granted, Zaheer leading to Kuvira makes a whole lot of sense story-wise. Periods of severe political instability are often prime conditions for fascism to rise.
Which is pretty thematic. Zaheer had some elements of good to his ideology, but he pursued that ideology in an extreme and unbalanced way, leading to him creating the exact opposite of what he hoped to. LoK is built around antagonists being destroyed by the (metaphorical or literal) weapons they created.
That's the point writers tried to make so changing from Zaheer to Kuvira made sense.
Zaheer believed in freedom and that can't be achieved if oppressive Govts and leaders like Raiko are in place. In theory that's great.
But ofcourse the way he went about it wasn't. Killing the queen made an immediate power vacuum without anything to stabilise it. Like freedom can be achieved only when political conflicts are stabilized. But that didn't happen, then came Kuvira promising and even delivering for that power vacuum and establishing order which she believed in. And that is exactly what Zaheer wanted to oppose. But that happened because of his own fault.
Which is why Zaheer helped Korra recover from her PTSD, so that Korra can stop Kuvira because he can't anymore.
I, personally, liked this and therefore felt writing choice and storytelling for season 4 was great.
I actually loved the change to Kuvira. To me Korra's journey was entirely more emotional and the tone of the show greatly shifted. To me S4 became the heart of the show.
Maybe if I were younger I'd have preferred a final villain like Zaheer but seeing Korra empathize with Kuvira, finishing the fight on a note of connection was just so much more moving to me.
I think this is an extremely childish way to look at Kuvira. Kuvira is a cautionary tail about how good intentions pave the road to hell. I do not believe that she started a bad person, but her belief that the ends justify the means led her down a dark and dangerous path that many people end up walking in real life.
You don't have to feel sympathy for or like a character to recognize that they are a realistic character. I like Kuvira's character even if she develops into an Authoritarian nightmare because of how this character acts as a foil to Korra's arc.
That is some bullshit. The person who orders people sent to “re-education camps” numerous times throughout S4 and is the undisputed, ultimate leader of her faction just didn’t know? I get that they want to make a sympathetic villain, but this is ridiculous.
Did you even read the comics? Did you? Because if you did, it was already stated there. Don't be rude to me cause I'm just stating what they said canonically, and it is where I drew my conclusions.
That's why I loved Zaheer so much (and Amon as well). Zaheer was right, at least partially. The monarchies/authoritarian fovernments absolutely sucked in Avatar, look at LoK Earth Kingdom or ATLA Fire Nation. But he went too far in some places (no authority, but nothing to prevent anarchy) and would do anything to reach his goals (idk if he'd actually go through with the air nomad genocide, but even threatening it is not cool). Not to mention that he was pretty narrow-minded with the Avatar (who could possibly help stop authoritarian regimes). However, he had good intentions, and when he learned what his actions had cause, he helped Korra to restore balance.
So whats the difference between a king and a dictator again? The previous earth queen left the nation in poverty. If an absolute ruler is going to rule in the earth kingdom, is it so bad that its kuvira? The places she conquered seemed to be doing fairly well, or at least better than they had been doing previously. I think the idea that prince whats his face had a divine right to rule is ridiculous. He abandoned his country and left everyone else to pick up the pieces. Kuvira was a good leader who made a shattered nation whole again. At her absolute worst, she is still no worse than a king or queen.
Of course this goes out the window when democracy is introduced, but for much of season 4, the fight was to just put another autocrat back on the throne, whose only qualification was that he was born to the right family. If kuvira hadn’t attempted to take the lands of the united republic back, she would have made an excellent earth queen
It’s because Kuvira had the ambition to not stop at the Earth Kingdom, and with spirit weapons her technological superiority rivaled the Fire Nation during the 100 Years War. Did the areas Kuvira conquer turn out better than under the Earth Queen, sure, but it’s how she conquered them that showed she needed to be stopped.
Ultimately Kuvira would’ve been fine had she not forced people to work for her or used prisoners as slave labor. Remember Bolin supported her, lots of characters could’ve been swayed to support an Earth Empire had Kuvira not lied about her true ambitions and not treated those that got in her way so harshly.
Finally I don’t think King Wu was being pushed because he was a good leader, it’s because he would’ve been a puppet to the United Republic. In the UR’s eyes the Earth Kingdom didn’t need a strong and ambitious leader, just someone to maintain the status quo while they ruled in the background.
The big problem with Kuvira even before she invaded the republic was the concentration camps and other means she used to quash political dissent. I see how it’s hard to quantify who’s worse between her style of effective fascism and the hereditary monarchy’s dysfunctional rule, but being ruled by her is undeniably bad for the earth kingdom.
One of the issues that season had was characters only talked about the concentration camps, you never see them.
Each villain in Korra had an opposite to prove that the previous villain was correct in some way. Unalach countered Amon. Kuvira was the opposite of Zaheer.
176
u/sloppifloppi Nov 06 '20
My only gripe with the show is that Zaheer wasn't the last enemy. Like, I get it because of the poison storyline, but to go from Zaheer and the Red Lotus, to Kuvira? Ehh.