Game of Thrones is a violent series, that uses this persistent violence to both show the decline of Westeros as a society and the fallacy of those agreed upon rules that governed Westerosi society. In the end it comes down to who has the power and will to act. Kuvira’s public coup of Prince (or is it formerly Prince?) Wu was three years in the making and after she crushed the Medal of Kyoshi all the world leaders could do is react with polite shock. They’re still playing by the agreed upon, “dignified”, rules Avatarverse; Kuvira clearly isn’t.

One of the enjoyable things about Legend of Korra has been the way it has treated its villains. The variety of political spectrum aside, their actions and rhetoric allowed you to at least make the case or toy with their ideology. More often than not if you removed the aggressive action behind the rhetoric it wouldn’t be so bad (unleashing Vaatu ok maybe not so much). While they had their moments of super villainy Bryke and the production crew didn’t over do those moments. Kuvira’s words about bringing stability to the Earth Kingdom, or Earth Empire now I guess, ring true. She has been boots on the ground slowly (beating) states back into line and bringing order to the Red Lotus chaos. But little quips about always getting her way right before she seizes power just come off as overdone and unnecessary shading for the character. For her part Zelda Williams more than makes up for these little moments. Williams has a calculating but ferocious quality to her voice, she sounds truly committed and if that means she gets cast as the villain so be it.

The thrust of their argument: that Prince Wu is unfit to rule for a litany of reasons and would be a puppet for Raiko and the other nations rings true. Bolin, naïve sap that he is, is still my go to moral center for this series. So when Bolin says Prince Wu, even if we hadn’t already spent time with the boy King, wouldn’t be a good ruler I am inclined to believe him. He mentions the part of Ba Sing Se their family lives in is no longer a ghetto. It’s these sort of close up acts that show the good Bolin is interested in that explains why he doesn’t see or ignores the more authoritative approach Kuvira takes. Korra is obviously on a tight time table but I’m curious if we’ll see this thread about the advisors Raiko was sending with Wu picked up and explored anymore.

I’m surprised how simultaneously enjoyable and annoying I’m finding the segments with Prince Wu. On one hand he resembles Louis XV in how out of touch he is with the reality of the situation. On the other, his idea of reality with dancing badger moles sounds delightful and entertaining with all its pomp and circumstance. If anything it’s the use of Mako as the straight man, as if he can be anything else, who finds himself in The Bodyguard that elevates this. Mako has largely been apolitical through the series only really taking action not in the name of politic but because his friends/family have been threatened. So it will be interesting to see Mako pulled in separate directions from his Job, Family, and Friends as things go forward.

I suppose we should talk about Korra at this point. Honestly I’m not too sure on how I feel about it. Old Lady Toph is fantastic, Philece Sampler hits all the normal Toph notes but aged up. By the end of “Korra Alone” it was obvious we were going to have some Empire Degobah parallels and as sequences those were entertaining. The part about Korra still having some of the metal in her body gives me some pause. It provides a physical reason for why Korra is unfit instead of reinforcing the necessity for personal reflection and forgiveness on top of the PTSD allusions. This fact is perhaps over written somewhat by Toph insisting that Korra herself could expel the metal if she actually wanted to. It just provides a very apparent setup for a physical “ah-ha!” moment instead of one that would require perhaps more subtly in the animation and acting department. With Toph seemingly out of the picture by the end, all that is left is for Korra to do the enter the innermost cave via finding that adorable Peach Spirit.

“The Coronation” is an necessary if mostly by the numbers plot wise episode of Korra. The Mako-Bolin arc for this episode going from brothers with their cool brohug setup to divided family members gives everything a clear emotional cost. Korra’s own journey was fun to watch, even if we all know where it’s going. I guess after such a great quasi-experimental episode like “Korra Alone” the normalcy of “The Coronation” makes it seem so average.

Bits At The End

I'll write something about "Korra Alone" eventually just been a tad busy with school.

I am Michael Mazzacane and you can find on Twitter @MaZZM and at weekntv.com andcomicweek.com