The Legend of Korra "Enemy At the Gates" Review: Welcome Back Parties

The Legend of Korra S04E05: "Enemy At the Gates"

There are a couple of elements of "Enemy At the Gates" that are worth discussing but I'll get to those in a minute. First, there's one thing I want to celebrate: Zhu Li finally acknowledged just how horrible Varrick has treated her, and declared herself sick and tired of his self-absorbed behavior. That was something I'd been wanting to see since Book 2, during which I constantly wondered why she would ever tolerate working for such an ass. That she capped off her assertion with "Guards! Do that thing!" made me even happier. Of course, I suspect that deep down, her confession—while possibly the truth—was also just a clever ruse to allow her to keep an eye on Varrick and undermine Kuvira, but I really hope not!

Anyway.

"Enemy At the Gates" was a homecoming of sorts for Kuvira and Korra. Kuvira decided to celebrate her return to Zaofu with a whole lot of soldiers and weapons, and Korra decided to celebrate her return to, well, the world stage with an attempt to broker a peaceful resolution to a situation that was very unlikely to end in one. Either way, terrible parties all around, unless Kuvira's mechanized suits are really good at dancing. They do seem pretty nimble.

Korra is, sadly, out of her depth. Think back to when we first met her: She was a little kid, bending all the elements around her and shouting, "I'm the Avatar! You gotta deal with it!" That's basically what's defined Korra up to this point: She's the Avatar, you're not, and she's obviously knows best. Also, being "the best" typically involves sending rocks, fire, water, and/or air into your face. But that Korra was the "old" Korra. Given all she's been through over the past three years, Korra is ready to consider a different, less confrontational path, and that's great. It's a sign of growth and maturity, that her ordeal wasn't something she can shrug off, but also that it was something she can learn from. She's a changed person and a changed Avatar.

The trouble is that, due to her old way of doing things, she's never had much practice talking through conflicts, let alone developed a knack for it. She doesn't have an agenda beyond "make sure Kuvira doesn't attack Zaofu." And that's not a true agenda, anyway—it's the objective of an agenda. And without a plan in place to prevent hostilities, she ended up running back and forth between the two forces, pleading with them to see reason. At least poor Bolin offered up a compromise of allowing Zaofu to remain independent of the rest of the newly formed Earth Empire. Meanwhile, Korra's just hoping that either Su or Kuvira will eventually cave for the sake of peace. It's charming and idealistic, and it's exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from someone who's never really given these issues a great deal of thought.

In Korra's defense, it doesn't help that neither side is interested in negotiating. Su wants to maintain her sovereignty, and Kuvira wants to make sure that, based on the map of the Earth Empire, there's not a powerful force looming at her borders (presuming that Zaofu still has some weight, despite the defection of Su's security forces and some wealthy citizens). Factor in the bad blood between the two and their entrenched ideologies, and there's almost no way this goes smoothly without one woman not getting exactly what she wants. It is, in short, pretty much every geopolitical conflict ever where there's land and "stability" at stake.

While it's likely that you'd suspected as much, the big takeaway from "Enemy at the Gates" was that Kuvira's not all that benevolent. "Tough but fair, with a messiah complex" was how the show had been characterizing her, but when fictional characters start tossing around the word "empire" and saying things like, "The army's here to project strength. You're here to present peace," and, "They contribute to the Empire however I see fit," well, it means that things like slave labor and reeducation camps (that aren't for teaching new trade skills) really can't be all that far behind. And hey, will you look at that, such things exist in the Earth Empire!

I'm a little disappointed that Korra's writers have decided to take Kuvira down this road. I liked the idea of her being a less-than-great ruler of the Earth Kingdom states but certainly better than Wu and the ministers who were hand-picked by the other world leaders; these authoritarian measures are exactly the sort of things that will nudge Kuvira toward being a slightly less-complicated antagonist for Korra to square off against, and for us as an audience to (sort of) understand.

LEAVES ON THE WIND

– "Why did we go to all that trouble to save you if you're not going to beat someone up?"

– "There are too many Varricks!"

– "But recently I've been having these strange feelings, inside. It's like I'm concerned with others and there's this nagging voice inside my head, constantly, telling me right from wrong." "I believe that that voice is your conscience, sir." "Well, I'm the other voice in your head, and I'm telling you to continue this project."

– "Head voices are liars! What do head voices know?!"

– "Less lecturing, more saving my life!" If I had a nickel for every time someone has said that to me, I'd be so rich.

– I love that Kuvira's uniforms are both stylish and functional... FUNCTIONAL FOR SUDDEN METALBENDING CHOKING! Though, really, given they can be used that way, I'm surprised she herself wears one.

– Another nice thing about Zhu Li's long spiel about Varrick's horribleness? The reactions Varrick expressed in the background. So great.

– Oh, right, Asami. I'm assuming her reconciliation with Hiroshi will come into play a little bit later, but as of now, it was a nice, if slight, counterpoint to the rest of the episode, showing the possible good that can be achieved when you decide to be flexible and make an attempt at peace.

What did you think of "The Calling"?