But why? If you have a new ability that far outweighs your previous one, why make it secondary?
IMO, Zaheer’s airbending prowess isn’t that hard to understand. He was well-versed in the philosophies of Air Nomad gurus like Laghima, and his extensive combat training gave him both the skills and the stamina to handle his new abilities. And I wouldn’t call him a “master” even though he learned to fly. He was pretty much wrecked by Tenzin until P’li and the other Red Lotus members showed up. So he unlocked some rare skill from long ago that no one remembered…it doesn’t make him the greatest airbender ever.
That said, I do love Zaheer. He was a refreshing change of pace after the rather annoying Unalaq.
@Toa_Heatwave pretty much summed up everything I wanted to say about Zaheer, though I must contest:
I’d argue that they were pretty darn evenly matched. And that’s what makes it so awesome. We’d never seen an Airbender duel before, let alone one between two combatants with aggressive bending styles.
I always chuckle at how Bryke totally cashed in on this fan reaction during the Book 4 clip show.
Lol. That phone call was the absolute highlight of that episode. Thank goodness the creators were able to give us that, despite Nick’s slashing their budget.
It’s true that we’ve never had anything to compare to an Airbender v. Airbender duel before, but Zaheer was on the run for most of the fight, and Tenzin knocked him around a lot without taking that many hits in return. He even managed to hit him with an air blast while also avoiding Ghazan and Ming-Hua’s attacks. If anything, it testifies to Tenzin’s mastery rather than Zaheer’s inexperience.
The problem is that we were never shown Zaheer’s past and what he was capable of. We are only told about them. Without seeing Zaheer’s prior abilities it’s hard to see the differences. Because most of our knowledge of Zaheer’s past is hear-say and it creates more speculation that actual fact.
Yes, I agree that Zaheer would eventually use all airbending, but not at the start. I expected him to gradually improve and use more airbending. But he mostly used airbending even from the start.
As someone who pratices Martial arts including Bagwa (airbending), I can tell you that it takes time to learn different forms. Excellence in one form does not guarantee excellence in another.
Zaheer may studied the air nomads, but that is no substitute for learning form a teacher. There are so many things about martial arts that you can’t really learn from a book.
I agree with lego, the were pretty evenly matched even though Tenzin was a true master.
Good points. We can probably just chalk it up to the fact that the writers needed him to be good from the start in order to get the action rolling. Watching Zaheer struggle to learn Airbending would have been an additional subplot in a season that already had a large number of them, which would’ve made the whole thing less crisp than it actually turned out. But it does leave a lot of unanswered questions…
I think they were pretty well matched too…but if the fight had continued without the others getting involved, Tenzin would have probably beaten Zaheer.
I wonder what the ORIGINAL fight against the Red Lotus looked like (the one with non-bending Zaheer, Tenzin, Tonrag, Zuko, and Sokka)…
sso I finished Korra finally
S1: pretty good, love triangle was stupid
S2: Super meh
S3: Fantastic
S4: also fantastic, ending kinda came out of left field for me though, wasn’t expecting that
You’re pretty much straight-on with the general consensus. Book 3 was my absolute fave…perfect villains, perfect character conflicts, perfect pacing, and a beautiful final battle that rivals the Aang-Ozai/Zuko-Azula fight.
The ending does indeed seem a little out-of-the-blue at first, but you can see the subtle hints leading up to it all the way back in the first episode of Book 3, which is when Bryke decided that they wanted it to end with Korrasami…
You could say that, but LOK doesn’t skimp on its characters either. ATLA had so much time to plot out arcs for its crew, which was awesome, but LOK had some great development too, particularly with Korra, Tenzin, and many of the villains.
Both shows have fantastic development IMO. Honestly, I think that the development for some of the Korra characters feels a bit odd and erratic in Books 1 and 2. But the villains pretty much all the way through were awesome for what they represented (Amon and Vaatu) or who they were (Zaheer and Kuvira).
I agree that Book 2 kind of reversed some developments made in Book 1. I think the ■■■■■ in plot and the movement to the new studio that did the animating for Book 2 might have had a bit of impact on what they did and how it all came together, but they righted all of their mistakes with the stunning second half of Book 2, and Books 3-4 were even better than that.
@AMETHYSTDONTDOTHATstudios I also found Zaheer to be a fascinating villain, though I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I liked him as a person. The idea of an evil Airbender was always intriguing to me, and they pulled it off flawlessly.
I dunno if I’d say that. A lot of Korra and Jinora’s interactions in the spirit world felt forced and cliché. The ending of Book 2 also felt like a bit of a deus-ex machina (though I suppose one could say the same for TLA’s series finale).
Zaheer vs. Tenzin was brilliant. We had (understandably) never seen an airbender fight another airbender before, and it was awesome. Traditional airbending is very defensive by nature, so seeing it used offensively by two combatants was super neat.