How 'The Legend of Korra' Explores the Themes of Politics: Season Four
Image Source: Amita’s Blog
Here we are, the last of the Legend of Korra seasons. The writers did a spectacular job exploring the issues of populism, religion, and anarchism and the threats they can turn into. Each season did this through the personification of the issue in a villain. Season four saved the big one for last, the one that can result from all three previous seasons. The big “F” word.
It’s a word that’s been used a lot lately and for good reason. While we can hope it doesn’t become a reality, for many around the world, it’s a reminder of a time all too familiar, and for a diminishing set of others, it’s a reminder of trauma they would do anything to forget.
If you’ve heard the word before but don’t know what it is, fascism is a system of government characterized by strict government control and demand for loyalty. Fascist governments utilize the existing institutions to propagate their propaganda and exert ever-tightening control on the population to root out opposition and arrest dissenters.
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Kuvira’s weapon of mass destruction.
Image Source: Comic Vine
In the wake of Zaheer and his comrades’ actions in season three, the Earth Kingdom is in a state of chaos. The elimination of the Earth Queen destabilized the entire country, leaving regions and towns to fend for themselves and creating a power vacuum into which gangs and warlords step in to take power. To exacerbate the situation the Avatar, Korra, removed herself from the public eye to recover from her ordeal with mercury poisoning. The Airbenders stepped in to assume her role and help where they can, but they were struggling.
It’s a perfect scenario to breed a fascist government. People are hurting, hungry, and desperate for security in a lawless time, and they look to people who promise security and a return to a place of strength with doe eyes. Their suffering makes it easier for them to accept that and the consequences be damned. In this instance, that role is fulfilled by Kuvira, a metalbender formerly from the security services of Zaofu. When the season starts, she and Suyin’s son are traveling the Earth Kingdom by train, uniting the provinces.
Kuvira refuses to give up power.
Image Source: Polygon
The problem is she’s amassing power and if a province doesn’t agree to accept her supplies and relief and protection, she’ll leave what she’s given them and abandon them to fend for themselves. With an army at her back, her confidence grows enough to refuse to give up power to the Earth Queen’s bratty kid. At first, she promises to make it a republic, and then as time goes on, it’s clearer and clearer that she is just going to keep her power and rule herself. As her power grows, so do her designs and resistance to her conquest.
Kuvira strong-arms Varrick and his assistant Zhu Li into developing a weapon of mass destruction, and as her plans become more and more dastardly to them and Bolin, they escape, and during their escape, they discover another little aspect of Kuvira’s goals: ethnic cleansing. At least as close as is possible in the ATLA universe. They come across walls and concentration camps where she’s been rounding up Earth Kingdom residents that are not native to the Kingdom. Benders and Non-Benders of a heritage from the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes.
In the end, Korra and her friends manage to destroy Kuvira’s weapons of mass destruction and save Republic City. Kuvira capitulates and gives up her power, allowing the Earth Kingdom to become a republic after all. Even still, they came close to having yet another nation bent on world domination. The writers do an excellent job of using the season to teach a lesson. Things can get bad, the suffering seeming endless, and people are going to come along promising everything people want to hear to make things good again. Hitler did and it worked for him. Look what happened there. Kuvira brought modernization, food, supplies, and protection, but what came with it was forced work and just another boot on their neck. If the desperate didn’t share her vision for the Earth Kingdom, she was excellent at putting their backs up against the wall so they had no choice.
Try and say no with that behind her.
Image Source: YouTube
It’s the tactic of the fascist, taking a page from populism. With the momentum of their popular support and the strength of the military behind them, there’s little the weak and desperate can do with the weight of that kind of knowledge pressing down on their shoulders. Threats of violence, whether overt with an army at the doors of the city or implied through clever rhetoric, are enough.
In true fascist fashion, their goals start to fall apart when they start to eat their own. Paranoia is a staple of fascist governments. It’s clear in the need for a secret police to watch over the populace for anyone who steps out of line. There’s a constant need among the leadership to “stay vigilant” and please the leadership above them and around them. It’s a dog-eat-dog world with people looking out for their own skin and at the slightest sign of weakness from others around them, they can take attention off of them and place it on another. We see something like this in Kuvira’s administration. She suspects Varrick of sabotage and that allows Zhu Li to continue his work. Kuvira relishes in the loyalty, so much so that she doesn’t see Zhu Li’s betrayal against her. It’s seen again at the end, when Kuvira is launching her attack on Republic City, and her lover, Baatar Jr., is used as a hostage to get her to stop.
She doesn’t.
As expected, she’s willing to kill him to get what she wants. Power. It’s always the same with fascists. But the problem with that is when you eat your own, eventually, there’s no one left but yourself.
All the seasons were spectacularly done to teach a warning about the way people can be manipulated into serving the desires of the power-hungry. The point is that there are always those fighting the good fight. Things can get absolutely dire, but the most important thing is to keep fighting against the forces of darkness.
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Source(s): Fandom
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