The Legend of Korra: Beyond the Wilds

November 28, 2014 7:01 AM - Season 4, Episode 9

Korra deals with trouble in the Spirit Wilds, with help from an unexpected quarter. Meanwhile, Bolin and Varrick's return elicits mixed reactions, while Opal and Lin make plans for a secret mission.
posted by emjaybee (27 comments total)

(I hope you don't mind me going ahead and putting this up, Atreides)
posted by emjaybee at 7:01 AM on November 28, 2014

You just saved me the trouble of constructing a post on my phone. That was really gonna suck, so thank you!
posted by Atreides at 7:51 AM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

I guess it speaks to how much this show put you in Korra's POV and how shitty a season she has had that I was also nervous and jumpy when she went to see Zaheer. I fully expected her to be hurt again in some way.

If the season was longer I would expect it to turn into some sort of Silence of the Lambs-type manipulation (or like Zuko and his dad in prison) but I don't think we'll have time for that, unless Zaheer has some unexpected other role to play.

Could Jainora really get trapped in the spirit world, though? She spends a lot of time there. It's interesting. We know so little about it, and how it interacts with the regular world. And was it striking back, or intentionally capturing people to get Korra's attention/lead to her healing?

VERY WWII-type dialogue, with Tenzin refusing to do anything pre-emptive, as well as Izumi. I wonder that a Water Tribe delegate was not there, though.

Good moments:

Korra; "Really? HIM, but not me? Him?"
Bolin calling himself an idiot repeatedly.
Bolin and Opal both able to have conversations with Pabu.
The lampshading of Bolin doing one "grand gesture" to win back Opal.
"WE HAVE TOP-SECRET INFORMATION!" "Guess we should have lead with that one!"
"I'm going to poke it with a stick!"

Also, seriously, how is Toph not already wreaking havoc? And if she shows up to help with the Beifong rescue, what about the swamp??
posted by emjaybee at 10:29 AM on November 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

I just don't know how I feel about this episode.

I mean, everything is there. Beifongs, Pabu, Bolin, Korra, Wu, Jinora, even freaking Zaheer.

Add in Ryu with his fancy dye job and finally the Fire Lord had a name AND speaks, and with everything that happened, I really really should have loved this episode.

But I just start thinking about the last one, and how it just feels like this one got butchered because of the budget cuts, and how so much happened, and I just get so annoyed that I can't love it.

It's like Season Four of Babylon 5. Joe gets told he's not going to get another season for his mighty five-year arc, everything gets squished in and you can see where things were meant to be drawn out, to be explored, to really drive the point home.

So I like this episode. I like so much about it. But...augh. It frustrates the hell out of me too.
posted by Katemonkey at 4:12 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

I feel that way about the whole series, Katemonkey. If we had just had as much time as we did with AtLA, to explore the world and get to know the people, it would have been so much better. It seems like every season, the writers were feeling the axe hanging over them and so had to cram stuff in. The whole series feels so rushed to me.

Four more episodes to go. It's not gonna get any less rushed, but hopefully there will be enough good stuff to make it worthwhile.
posted by emjaybee at 4:38 PM on November 28, 2014 [4 favorites]

So, it seems I'm not alone in being a bit surprised about the direction this episode took -- I was expecting after the retrospective pause that we'd be diving straight into action directly related to the conflict with Kuvira again (and that it was time for Toph to lay down the smack).

But the surprise is pleasant for me. The direction felt driven by the consequences of previous actions and (mostly) reasonable character decisions. And maybe best of all, Korra continues her development away from the girl who just punches problems... and doesn't even have her problems solved by a friend or mentor this time, either, but instead takes initiative to do some really hard introspection and learn from an antagonist. Taking this tack reinforces the idea that this season really is as much about character growth as the conflict with Kuvira.

I'm ambivalent about that meeting with Zaheer, though. On one hand, it's been said this is a show that rewards speculation, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's wondered how Zaheer would feel on confronting the actual outcome of his attempt to bring anarchy to the earth kingom. The look on his face was a great moment. And he's always been at least a little enigmatic and complex as an antagonist, in no hurry to use threats or force if something else would serve.

On the other hand, I'm more than a little surprised that he was that willing to help the avatar find a greater grip on her power, especially after reflection seemed to have revealed to him the avatar's power is greater than he'd suspected. Helping her stabilize and reinforce her hold on "limitless" power seems really, really contrary to his principles. And if he was just manipulating her, he was pretty... gentle toward the end. I'm all for complexity to antagonists, but part of me feels like there's something of an issue of integrity here.


Bolin's new clothes... symbolic? It's neither the old Republic city style he'd started with, nor ostentatious Nuktuk/mover-star getup, nor military uniform or earth kingdom colors. It's warm earth color on top, cool/dark earth tone for the trousers, and nobody else is wearing anything like it. He's got his own identity.


"A man has the right to blow up his own property." Hello, Howard Roark.
posted by weston at 9:18 PM on November 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

Korra and AtLA are the kind of shows where you think a ten-year arc would be barely enough.
posted by viggorlijah at 9:30 PM on November 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

I will say that I am grateful that absolutely nothing about Ryu's adventures in the Spirit Wilds ruined my personal headcanon that he spent at least a year in Zaofu and had a relationship with Huan where they spent most of their time alternating between impassioned debates about meaning in modern society and shrugging and saying "Yeah, whatever," whenever their mothers interrupted.

Or something like that.

theirloveissoironic!
posted by Katemonkey at 5:25 AM on November 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

Next week's preview. Bolin fangirling over TOPH.
posted by emjaybee at 11:18 AM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Maybe next Friday I will be able to jump in from the start with thoughts, feelers, and the occasional and repetitive exclamation of how good Zuckerman is at the music he creates for the show...but it wasn't this weekend. For those interested, here's the link to this week's recappin' and thinkin's for the episode.
posted by Atreides at 12:17 PM on November 30, 2014

Hey, massive reply to stuffs people have commented on! Hurrays!


Could Jainora really get trapped in the spirit world, though? She spends a lot of time there. It's interesting. We know so little about it, and how it interacts with the regular world. And was it striking back, or intentionally capturing people to get Korra's attention/lead to her healing?

I think it's the fact that she's actually captured in the material world that causes her to be held captive. Her appearance in the Spirit World, I would consider more of a reflection of her state of capture by the spirit vines in the other world. I think the spirit vine's actions were rather ambiguous and we had no one around to really say, "Why, they are trying to do X!" One would think that they would be more violent toward our hostages, if retaliation was the sole purpose of their actions. I think it can best be characterized as attention getting.

VERY WWII-type dialogue, with Tenzin refusing to do anything pre-emptive, as well as Izumi. I wonder that a Water Tribe delegate was not there, though.

Seriously, why wasn't there a Water Tribe delegate from either the Northern or Southern tribe? Firelord Izumi had as much, or rather, as little a reason to be present as Korra's father or either of the twins. Directing decision? Writer's choice? For the same reason a water tribe ambassador was on the old council, i.e., to protect the rights of water benders in Republic City, one would think the tribes would still have an ongoing concern. Otherwise, are the water tribes simply not that concerned over Kuvira or their role in responding to her actions?

Also, seriously, how is Toph not already wreaking havoc? And if she shows up to help with the Beifong rescue, what about the swamp??

This is one of the things that was clearly absent from the episode and something I think everyone has been waiting for since Kuvira appeared in the swamp. She's one of the most powerful benders alive, and granted, she's not in her prime, when she would have "destroyed the Avatar," she probably could tear to pieces those parts of Kuvira's forces in the Swamp. Given that we know she pops up next episode, I suppose our answer will come then, but it's a bit frustrating to be asked to keep this expectation on ice until it's answered!

I feel that way about the whole series, Katemonkey. If we had just had as much time as we did with AtLA, to explore the world and get to know the people, it would have been so much better. It seems like every season, the writers were feeling the axe hanging over them and so had to cram stuff in. The whole series feels so rushed to me.

One more here who would love so much to see LoK spread across the same passage of time as ATLA. Wildly enough, the overall number of episodes are actually quite close with ATLA with about 61 episodes and LoK with 52. Nine episodes is the difference and the fact that the latter was broken into four seasons and the former with three seasons. Better put, ATLA had approximately 20 episodes per season, and if Korra had just three seasons, it would have about 17, so then only three episodes fewer per season. However, that would also mean an additional four or so episodes per season for Korra to further flesh out the characters and their adventures than what we have now. Another point, though, is that Korra was originally viewed as a one off mini-series, and only after its success, were the other seasons greenlighted. So in truth, that's just an additional 40 episodes, which actually could have been split between two seasons at 20 a piece. Would two 20 episode seasons been preferred? It basically could have been like ATLA, but with the first season nearly halved.

But the surprise is pleasant for me. The direction felt driven by the consequences of previous actions and (mostly) reasonable character decisions. And maybe best of all, Korra continues her development away from the girl who just punches problems... and doesn't even have her problems solved by a friend or mentor this time, either, but instead takes initiative to do some really hard introspection and learn from an antagonist. Taking this tack reinforces the idea that this season really is as much about character growth as the conflict with Kuvira.

Dead on, I think. Book 4 has really been about Korra coming into her own as a mature Avatar and her road along the way. However, we can't have an entire season of Korra soul searching without some kind of overriding nemesis or problem that will be overcome once she has succeeded in doing so, hence Kuvira. I think this is a really good explanation as to why Kuvira has existed a lot more on the periphery and out of sight than we might expect if the season was truly about her being stopped versus the development of Korra's character. One of the biggest complaints in Book 2, was that Korra seemed to understand or internalize so little of what she should have learned after Book 1. Given the retrospective we now have, it seems the writers weren't thinking of Korra in a chronology of seasonal arcs, but as one giant character arc over the four books. Her growth isn't supposed to be immediately after Amon, but one that develops as she confronts one obstacle after another, and those are spread out across her entire story. We might really view the seasons as chapters in a book, versus four separate books, and then we have a much more satisfactory perspective on Korra's growth and characterization.

On the other hand, I'm more than a little surprised that he was that willing to help the avatar find a greater grip on her power, especially after reflection seemed to have revealed to him the avatar's power is greater than he'd suspected. Helping her stabilize and reinforce her hold on "limitless" power seems really, really contrary to his principles. And if he was just manipulating her, he was pretty... gentle toward the end. I'm all for complexity to antagonists, but part of me feels like there's something of an issue of integrity here.

I think Zaheer is a bit of a pragmatist in this instance. He recognizes his actions have done the opposite of what he set out to do, create freedom, and the result was something even worse than what existed previously. Likewise, he's fully cognizant that there is nothing more he can do to fix this problem other than empower the Avatar to do what he cannot. Zaheer has always been a very rational individual, choosing not to assassinate Raiko, for example, and methodically taking the steps needed to bring the Red Lotus plan into fruition. I think the fact of how strong Korra was, or the Avatar, surprised him and may also shifted his opinion on the importance of the Avatar. Before he saw her as merely an instrument of delay and obstruction and now he see's her as someone relevant to the world, and again, now a tool to bring down the very thing he opposes. Finally, he's also entered the void, and as he suggested to Korra, accepted that he's in a position to do nothing. He can move on from where he was before.

I really appreciated that our last experience with Zaheer was not with his crazy rant filled mouth being stuffed with Bolin's sock, but one where his own intelligence, wisdom and self-control is exhibited. It's kind of interesting because Korra's visit of Zaheer is kind of like someone visiting a guru, someone who has renounced earthly attachments and exists on another plane (spirit world, yo!). The first shot of him is in meditation, after all, and in a state of obliviousness to his personal appearance. Thus, Zaheer's advice is now not from a man who wants to change the world, but has moved beyond the need to change the world. He now exists as someone who is now longer bound to the material world and accepts this as who he is.

Bolin's new clothes... symbolic? It's neither the old Republic city style he'd started with, nor ostentatious Nuktuk/mover-star getup, nor military uniform or earth kingdom colors. It's warm earth color on top, cool/dark earth tone for the trousers, and nobody else is wearing anything like it. He's got his own identity.

Definitely symbolic, at least, continuing the point that our characters are now no longer the same characters we knew from Books 1 - 3. This is season 4 Bolin, who has grown and matured over the last few years and represented with a new appearance to support this fact. Nearly everyone in this season has had a new outfit/uniform, which has helped symbolize change. Ready for your mind to be blown? Who hasn't? The Beifongs of Zaofu, Suyin, her sons, etc, who cling to the clothes they wore years ago. Their mindset, ironically presupposed to the future and technology, advacement, etc, is one that has refused to change with regard to the passage of time. Thus, it's not a surprise that they are the ones who become the victims of those who have changed, i.e., Kuvira and her supporters. The only other exceptions being President Raiko and Lin, and both, coincidentally, appear to be acting exactly as they would three years ago.

"A man has the right to blow up his own property." Hello, Howard Roark.

Repeated for the awesomeness of that line and its delivery.

I will say that I am grateful that absolutely nothing about Ryu's adventures in the Spirit Wilds ruined my personal headcanon that he spent at least a year in Zaofu and had a relationship with Huan where they spent most of their time alternating between impassioned debates about meaning in modern society and shrugging and saying "Yeah, whatever," whenever their mothers interrupted.

You gotta love it that Korra has been back in Republic City for plausibly a few days to a couple weeks and already has a set bias against Ryu, "This is Ryu we're talking about..."
posted by Atreides at 2:50 PM on November 30, 2014 [3 favorites]

You gotta love it that Korra has been back in Republic City for plausibly a few days to a couple weeks and already has a set bias against Ryu, "This is Ryu we're talking about..."

But he was the one she tried to drag out of his parents' basement, remember? So she knew him, somewhat.

My favorite line of his was "Why would you even DO that?!" to the poking-with-a-stick-guy. I'm with you, Ryu. Also, where does one get awesome blonde hair dye? I'm guessing the Earth Kingdom mall, next to the Kuvira tshirts kiosk. All the flameo hotmen teens hang there I bet.

Republic City Dispatch is up.
posted by emjaybee at 5:27 PM on November 30, 2014 [3 favorites]

I loved that the first reaction was "Ryu's probably at the mall."

Because imagine! Ryu in Little Ba Sing Se, drinking a bubble tea, leaning against a wall, complaining about all these guys who just sit there in their clothes with their stuff and their things. And then Wu walks by, with poor Mako carrying the comedy cliché epic pile of boxes, and Ryu just goes "And then there's this asshole."

Oh man. Man. What if Ikki hangs out with him? And they complain about Jinora and her woo-woo spiritual powers and how Ryu got stuck being the tour guide and it's so not fair, you know. He was totally having, like, a good time in Zaofu, but then he got called back here, and it's so boring.

And then Ikki suggests buying hair dye, and Ryu's just like "Oh man, your mom is gonna kill me if we dye your hair," and she says "But we can dye your hair!" And he can't argue, because he's so bored, it even seems interesting, so they get hair dye all over the tiles in the bathroom, and both of them get stuck with clean-up duty.

Uh-oh. I have a new favourite character. And he doesn't do anything. THIS MAKES HIM PERFECT.
posted by Katemonkey at 3:04 AM on December 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

So what you're both saying is that we need a "Tales of Ba Sing Se" episode focused entirely on Ryu: "Tales of Ryu." Segment 1, Ryu in Zaofu. Segment 2, Ryu and Ikki at the mall. Segment 3, Ryu's spirit journey while enclosed in the spirit pod? Dare I even ask what that would be like?
posted by Atreides at 6:20 AM on December 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

"Ugh, I'm all spirit-y."

Actually, it didn't look like they went on much of a spirit journey, just sort of hibernated until Korra rescued them. But, man, Tales of Ryu would be where it's at.
posted by Katemonkey at 6:23 AM on December 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

+1 for excellent Ryu fanfiction, would read again.

Ikki should totally dye her hair. Youngest girl, has a super-achieving beloved older sister (who also has a hot airbending boyfriend), has an unbearable younger brother with delusions of grandeur; she needs to do something to rebel. Clearly misfits like Ryu and Lin's artist son (what was his name)? are her tribe.
posted by emjaybee at 10:32 AM on December 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

Waaait. I'm totally thinking about this all wrong.

Obviously, it's "Tales of Little Ba Sing Se".

(Extra kudos for an entire plot revolving around the Bosco lookalike in the Super Palace Buffet.)
posted by Katemonkey at 3:33 PM on December 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

I have to put it out there, but, that plot HAS to reveal that Bosco wasn't really eaten by the Earth Queen. In there, somewhere, throw in an old retainer of the Earth King who can offer us the definitive conclusion of Bosco's incredible journey from simple unknown and confusingly plain bear to the best friend of the Earth Kingdom monarch. Jewel thieves, too. Gotta keep it sexy!
posted by Atreides at 11:05 AM on December 2, 2014

Aw, and here I was hoping it was a guy in a bear suit who has the heart-breaking secret that his family had to seek refuge in Republic City after his father cooked Bosco for the Queen.

And now he is doing penance every day, with his little bear dance, and his little bear hat.
posted by Katemonkey at 12:47 AM on December 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

I blame ya'll for making me look this up, but grizzly bears (the closest likely species to Bosco) live about 25 years. So Bosco probably wouldn't have been around long enough for the Queen to eat him, assuming the Earth King had a normal life span, and if he was, that would be one tough bear steak to chew.

Now, it's possible the Earth King had more than one Bosco after old Bosco died, she could have eaten that one.
posted by emjaybee at 10:00 AM on December 3, 2014 [2 favorites]

emjaybee, You're not helping my psychosis concerning the Queen eating the bears of her father. (Which happens to be the name of a groundbreaking best seller book," Eating the Bears of My Father," a fictional diary of the Earth Queen published in the chaotic times following her death.)

Katemonkey. That sounds like a foreign film oscar winning film. The father would have had to have been played by Stephen Chow, who would bring a lightness to the incredible tragedy of the act he had to perform!
posted by Atreides at 12:46 PM on December 3, 2014 [2 favorites]

I am totally blaming y'all for the fact that I have 850 words in a Google doc entitled "Tales of Little Ba Sing Se".
posted by Katemonkey at 2:30 PM on December 3, 2014 [5 favorites]

Be sure to pick the proper LoK soundtrack tunes to accompany that doc when you make it available to the world. Cause, yeah, now you gotta.
posted by Atreides at 7:20 AM on December 4, 2014

By the way, I rewatched this the other night (third? Fourth time?) and really appreciated the storyboard/directing. There's a fantastic scene where Jinora, Opal and Korra are in the Spirit Wild and the frame is perfectly divided in thirds and dimension, with each of the women appearing in a third of the screen (Opal on the left, Jinora center, and Korra right), and each being different distances (Korra closest, as she enters the screen, then Opal and finally Jinora in the rear). That scene is also immediately followed by an upward looking shot with a vine in the foreground which Korra, centered, reaches forward and grasps to try and get a reading, which was also cooly creative.
posted by Atreides at 9:06 AM on December 5, 2014

A'ight, so experimentation time! Also probably a great display of abysmal redundancy, as I'm sure someone has already done this and with greater knowledge and skill, but based on my fascination with the above mentioned frames, I went back and picked out about 24 different frames from Beyond the Wild and examined them for their composition. This is bean platin' Korra style, yo!

Anyways, if anyone is bored, here's the link to it on the same place I hang my gargantuan recap posts.
posted by Atreides at 12:20 PM on December 7, 2014

P.S. I aim to do this for Operation Beifong when I get the chance, and who knows, use it as a means to continual my fanboyisms beyond the 19th with prior episodes and seasons. [insert sobs]
posted by Atreides at 12:22 PM on December 7, 2014

Late watching this, but the important thing about this episode is that I would pay real money for Henry Rollins guided meditation recordings. Or create my own using the dialogue from this.
posted by asperity at 2:26 PM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]