[310] Long Live the Queen

[SMBH]

Release date: 8 August 2014

Summary: Zaheer and his group arrive in Ba Sing Se.

Discuss!


You may discuss the episode in this thread only! No discussion about its contents in the main TLOK board. Do not comment if you've not seen this episode and derail this thread or your posts will be removed.

Also, absolutely NO LINKS to the episode and DO NOT ask for a link.

Thread will be moved back to the TLOK Episodes board tomorrow (friday) at noon ET, or when the episode is shown at nick.com, whatever comes first.


Thread moved back to the TLOK Episodes board now that the episode has been officially released and is no longer a spoiler.

[Icy_Ashford]

Thread unlocked early and moved to Spoilers board due to leaks.

[The Shpee]

wait what? It's been leaked?

[Icy_Ashford]

Yes it has. Please keep this thread on topic though. Only comment if you've seen this episode.

[Prince Lu Ten]

Well that was dark

[Simon]

Does this mean the entire episode was leaked? Or just the gifs Nick posted on their own site?

Nevermind. Found it.

On another note, I won't post the link here, but the post from the team/guy/girl/anons who leaked it signal that the Avatar fandom is slowly turning into... the Red Lotus. That was some serious anti-oppressive government Nickelodeon hate right there.

[Goodfella]

Whole ep. Link floating around now.

[ahintoflime]

I don't exactly know how the Red Lotus intend to disrupt other places. They'll need to leave Ba Sing Se if they want to overturn the Fire Nation and will need to track Tonraq and Desna and Eska. Not to mention that once the URN gets wind of this the president is going to go to Camp David.

This seemed like a relatively weak episode.

Sure stuff happened but stuff always happens. The plot was contrived to get Korra and Asami stuck in the desert. They didn't even "work" together like how the Gaang would on everyday things. K and A pretty much punched in from 9 to 5.

The Red Lotus were mostly chilling until they did the thing.

And I'm really get sick of this build up to Bolin doing something. I know he's going to do something, and I know it's going to be "big." But since it is him I can't seem to care. Maybe I will when it happens but until then I'm not feeling it.

I did get a hearty laugh at seeing those three sitting at the table. Asami and Korra could be dead or captured again and those three look like the service at the place is terrible and they're waiting for their order. It probably wasn't a scene to laugh at though.

[Simon]

Good episode, but it lacked the excitement and anticipation of the last two. The dialogue and humor wasn't that special, some character interactions seemed off-putting (Mako pushing Bolin did frustrate me but I guess it's just setting up for Bolin discovering something greater than metalbending?), but it's nice to see the Red Lotus get nice character interaction. The chat with Bolin, Mako, Ghazon, and Ming Hua was funny. Looks like Ghazon-Hua is going to be a thing

It's nice seeing Korra and Asami work together, and that Asami uses her technical skills to help save them both. But I sure wish she would do that more. They were definitely lacking in terms of actually butting their heads together, it was more like Asami coming up with somewhat obvious ideas and Korra helping with her bending. So basically, Asami became Sokka for a bit, haha.

Am I the only one disappointed that we didn't get to see the Earth Queen fall down to the ground after Zaheer suffocates her? We could at least have had some visual confirmation. Hell, we got an explosion with Noatak and Tarrlok. Looks like we now have some idea of how Monk Gyatso got rid of those firebenders. That was some pretty torturous stuff, it definitely showed the dark side of airbending. Zaheer is a philosophical beast, loved his quote about freedom being like air -- "essential."

I think Korra should have been more panicked when she met up with Lin, Tonraq, and Zuko back at Misty Palms. The girl seemed like she just came back from Disneyland or something. Her friends were kidnapped by the Red Lotus, for Raava's sake, a little more worry in her voice would have helped.

It's a bit jarring to see TLOK use the word "terrorist" to describe the Red Lotus. Definitely a show of its time, I guess. I don't think the Red Lotus has gone to full-on terrorist mode to the entire world yet, considering they aren't publicly outed as a group (Zaheer wished to remain nameless in the broadcast). That assassination though... I just wanna see Zaheer kill Tenzin already

[Icy_Ashford]

Zuko's dragon lives!! And Naga is not captured thank goodness. Thoughts of the queen eating Naga can be put to rest... along with the queen herself. I'm semi-disappointed by her last scene in the end as she reached out desperately into the air. That's it?? What. I know it's a kids show but not showing her properly die is just frustrating.

And Zuko met Korra as a kid. Aww. I would like fanart of this.

If Bolin ever metalbends, it seems he'll do it in the finale or something. I wish they just stop teasing yet. Does he even know that he has to concentrate on the earth within the metal??

And props to Lin for calling for back up aka Tonraq and Zuko. She might be good but it's still realistic to ask for help.

Something seems to be "missing" in this episode though. I can't put my finger on it...

[Koksor]

I've been looking for the link to the episode but couln't find it. Guess I'm going to have to wait till friday :/

[Furudo Erika]

I'm in shock. I can't believe Zaheer killed the Earth Queen on-screen. I feel kinda sorry for her...

[Icy_Ashford]

Please do not derail the thread by saying that you can't find the link or have found it. Anyone who doesn't discuss about this episode after this post will have their posts removed.

[Furudo Erika]

Truly... Long Live the Queen. I can't get over how crazy and dark this was. And badass. Just wow.

[Tjbend]

Wow... That had to be one of the most, if not THE most gruesome death in "Avatar" history. I know Noatak and Tarrlok's murder-suicide was strong, but we didn't see them disintegrate on screen or suffer like the Earth Queen just did.

That was a gutsy move from Bryke, bravo. And the consequences are indeed earth shattering (pun intended) for the Kingdom.

Oh and Asami power, Zuko appearance, and hurray for complex villains.

[Furudo Erika]

I can't believe it, lol. That was so graphic. Those eyes...



Just wow. Bravo Bryke. Bravo.

[Red Hawk]

Ba Sing Se is yours.  No one will interfere, do as you please.

Zaheer is a huge improvement over Unalaq.

2

[Furudo Erika]

Zaheer has more depth than any of the villains we have seen in Avatar tbh.

[Red Hawk]

Zaheer has more depth than any of the villains we have seen in Avatar tbh.

I don't know if I'd go that far.  What do you think gives him depth?

[christina896]

This may not hold water after a rewatch, but...There was too little build-up. I wasn't invested in anything that happened. The Earth Queen is hard to like, but we saw her in only two episodes before this. She didn't have enough involvement for me to form any strong feelings. Even when we learned that she wrought poverty in her kingdom and conscripted the Airbenders, the gags at her expense made it hard to take her seriously. Her death had shock value; once that wore off, I was apathetic. (And the death itself really did lack finality. I have to keep reminding myself she won't have another scene.)

The rest of the episode was pretty forgettable.

[Red Hawk]

I don't think we're really supposed to feel much for the Earth Queen, aside from a bit of horror that anyone would be killed like that.  The scene was really about Zaheer, and illustrating that he's dead serious about his goal of destroying governments to attain what he views as a balanced, natural world.

[Icy_Ashford]

I'm still a tiny bit disappointed by the queen's death. We see her stretching her arm out and fall off screen which makes you think she has a tiny bit of hope surviving. But nope, next mention of her is "being taken down" and you don't see the body.

I know, kids show but they already went beyond the line by showing her getting choked on screen, go all the way by showing her dead on the floor please. If Aang can see Gyatso's skeleton, why not a dead body that doesn't even have any blood on it?

[Furudo Erika]

I don't think we're really supposed to feel much for the Earth Queen, aside from a bit of horror that anyone would be killed like that.  The scene was really about Zaheer, and illustrating that he's dead serious about his goal of destroying governments to attain what he views as a balanced, natural world.

I agree with this. We see his plan in motion. It was Zaheer's scene, not the Queen's.

And I loved Asami and Korra together. I loved Ming Hua's and Ghazan's conversation with Bolin. I just loved every scene of this episode. Definitely one of my favourites.

[Red Hawk]

I'm still a tiny bit disappointed by the queen's death. We see her stretching her arm out and fall off screen which makes you think she has a tiny bit of hope surviving. But nope, next mention of her is "being taken down" and you don't see the body.

I know, kids show but they already went beyond the line by showing her getting choked on screen, go all the way by showing her dead on the floor please. If Aang can see Gyatso's skeleton, why not a dead body that doesn't even have any blood on it?

Yeah, I guess it would have been better to show her collapse or something, but ultimately I think that's nitpicking.  If the writers had to concede not showing her collapse in order to get this scene approved at all, I think it was well worth the concession.  Zaheer is a BAMF.

[Old School]

Welp.

This episode certainly wasn't seeing airtime on a kid's network.