In which I admit to being really wrong about Zhu Li, talk a little about Kuvira as a mirror of Korra, compare metalbending to bloodbending, and acknowledge how terrifying both airbending and Varrick are.
Analysis Is Magic
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
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I haven't seen anyone use metal bands the way Kuvira does, and I think they're her own innovation. The Bei Fongs focus on cables, like the rest of the metalbending cops.
ReplyDeleteMy read of the Varric scene was that he was playing them easily from the very beginning - he talks them into giving him Bolin, then they give him something very dangerous and ask him to make it more dangerous, so he does that. What did they think was going to happen? What's interesting is how Varric's plan relies on Bolin saving his life without being given any direction.
Varric literally trusted someone who doesn't like him and has been his enemy in the past with his life. He didn't even ask first! It calls to mind his brief interaction with Mako in season 3 - Varric didn't hold any resentment for the people who put him in jail and doesn't expect any resentment from Mako for putting him in jail.
I don't think anything Zhu Li does here proves that she was faking. At this stage in her plan it's obviously necessary to go along with Kuvira's expectations. If anything, she's positioned herself to turn on Kuvira in exactly the same way Varric did this episode. I can easily believe that Varric doesn't understand her as well as she must have understood him in order to assist him effectively. In fact, I would expect that she knew what Varric would do. If she did, she chose not to warn Kuvira's people.
So let's talk about our favorite theory that I don't believe in but haven't totally given up on. The one where the hallucinatory Korra is Rava? Korra seeing Rava in Kuvira soon after she activates the Avatar State fits in with Kuvira being Order, and therefore Rava, run amok after Vaatu's defeat in Season 2 (not to mention his implicit defeats in season 1 and 3). If we take Rava as being one half of a whole split along order and chaos, like S2 said she is, as opposed to just an embodiment of benevolence like S2 showed her to be, then it makes sense that Korra is deeply reluctant to oppose Kuvira openly and then falters when she tries to use the Avatar State, which is channeling Rava's energy, against Kuvira. It's also interesting to note that Varric's weapon causes the spirit vines to glow purple, a color coded to Vaatu, and that he was inspired to this line of research while watching Vaatu attack Republic City. If the theory turns out to be true like I think it isn't, Vaatu will grant Korra a connection with the activated spirit vines and either turn Kuvira's trump card against her or neutralize it.