Book 2 Spirits - Tumblr Posts
Korra’s Growth (Book 2: Spirits)
After the fallout of book 1 Korra is even more arrogant about her abilities, but now her confidence isn’t as easily swayed. In book 1 Korra had yet to prove herself against a threat and it caused her confidence to wane because she doubted that she really could accomplish her role as the avatar. Now she has stopped a movement that threatened the balance of society and she is even more powerful than ever with the avatar state and airbending. Her inferiority superiority complex is still in full swing and causes her to stand her ground even without the backing of her friends and allies in many large scale situations. This isn’t helped by the civil war within the water tribe which splits her loyalties. Korra’s confidence in her decisions wanes, but she is unable to outwardly admit to it and ask for help. She doesn’t want to admit to not knowing the answer, so she separates herself from people who doubt her decisions and leans toward people who support them. Unalaq picks up on this character trait and uses it to get her to open the spirit portal and begin his plan.
Korra is again faced with the consequences for her attitude and subsequent mindset. Her impatience and stubbornness thwart her at every turn and it culminates with her being attacked by a spirit and left on the precipice floating between life and death. She is forced to reconnect with rava and experience the story of avatar Wan. From this point Korra is markedly less brash, but still isn’t able to connect with people to an extent to truly help them change their ways. Seeing Wan’s humble beginnings and how he ultimately viewed his inability to bring about peace within the world as his failure caused Korra to realize that the avatar isn’t that different from other people, the avatar started out as someone who decided to step up to a situation that through their impulsive actions they caused. She comes to realize that the fact that you made a mistake isn’t what defines you, but how you deal with the mistake. She then decides to reconcile with Tenzin and his family and enter the spirit world.
Up until this point she had always struggled spiritually and had defined herself by her bending and with this challenge she is forced to face both of these shortcomings. Her entrance into the spirit world marks Korra’s turning point when it comes to facing her weaknesses and fears. From this point on she stops avoiding her problems and starts actively trying to change and become a better, more understanding avatar. When her connection to the past avatars is severed it makes it so that korra feels like she has destroyed the avatar legacy, but it also forces her to create her own instead of defining and comparing herself to her past lives and their actions. Instead of breaking down she resolves herself to see her fight with Unalaq and Vaatu through to the end. Instead of giving up like she did after Amon took her bending she instead faces the consequences of the loss, resolves to move forward, and announces to the world her decision to keep the portals open. Showing that she did learn something from her enemy this time around and it marks a turning point in her character as a whole.