3x07 Original Airbenders

[8.5/10] Tenzin has slowly but surely become one of my favorite characters in The Legend of Korra. Having J.K. Simmons voicing your character is always going to be a greater-making quality, but what makes me really like him is the fact that he is not just a generic mentor -- he is human and flawed. That means that as much as he believes in his stocisim and discipline and principles, he’s also overzealous, unbending (no pun intended), and overly conservative in his approaches in ways that give him room to grow.

So when he has a collection of new airbenders to train in the ways of his people, the dull traditional side of him comes out, and that understandably perturbs his brother, his daughter, and his new recruits.

For Bumi, it leads to all sorts of frustration when Tenzin takes his advice to employ some military-style training and forces the new airbenders to get up at dawn, go on long hikes, and run through obstacle courses. It’s enough to make Bumi, who’s otherwise a goof off anyway, quit.

And for Jinora, even though she’s an adept airbender, her conversation with the mischievous Kai prompts her to wonder why she hasn’t been allowed to receive her airbending tattoos yet, something to establish her as a master, despite her prodigious talents at both airbending and the spirit-focused side of the world. It leads to a brief but potent rift between her and her father.

But when the going gets tough, the airbenders hang together and rise to their potential. The episode plays with emotional states in a deft fashion, having Bumi’s frustrations, and that of the other new airbenders, be set aside so that they can rescue Jinora from a group of sky bison poachers (trying to capture a local herd to sell the meat to the Earth Queen, who apparently ate poor Bosco!). The poachers are convenient bad guys, but they serve as a solid reason for the new recruits, struggling and not crazy about how things are going, to band together and live up to their potential.

Little details, like Bumi going from wanting to quit to realizing that what they’ve gone through has bonded the new airbenders together, or the one airbender’s shaved head letting him evade the net just like Tenzin said, or Tenzin stopping Kai from attacking a defenseless enemy but complimenting him on his technique, all sell not only the growth of the characters, but their new belief and acceptance of airbenders as a team and a culture.

That gives us great moments of catharsis. The newly bald recruit sings the praises of what his haircut allowed him to do and encourages the others to join in that part of the culture. Bumi admits that despite being Aang’s son, he never felt like a part of the air nation, and Tenzin embraces his brother and tells him that he is and was. And even with Jinora, Tenzin admits that she is a talented young airbender, and he’ll consider whether it’s time for her to receive her tattoos (I’m betting it happens in the finale). Sure, the baby bison taking flight and Tenzin declaring that everyone’s growing up is a little on the nose, but it’s an earned moment.

With as much great serialization going on in the series at this point, it’s nice to see TLoK taking time out to tell a standalone story like this, that not only advances the new crop of airbenders, but develops Tenzin, Bumi, and Jinora as individuals, and their relationships with one another. Season 3 of TLoK has been the best in the series so far, and it’s nice to see the show be able to tell great stories like this, even when they’re not advancing the major villain arc of the season.