Book 4 episode 5 “Enemy at the Gates”.

(season 4 part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and season 3 analysis)

I was procrastinating a lot on this episode. Mostly because the difference of Korra in the previous episodes and this one is quite big. And honestly, I’m not very happy how this turned out (except for few moments). But I can’t move on to the next before I do this one, so here it is.

The episode starts with Kuvira and her troops coming to Zoufu. The animation of the scenery is amazing yet again. We get some Kuvira and Baatar Jr. (that’s some relationship dynamics most people would not want to have and mostly because of Baatar Jr.) and then we get to Korra and the airbenders.

In the episode 4 Korra got rid of the residual poison and was able to go into the avatar state again. So as far as she is concerned, she is fine again. A bit rusty, due to the lack of training and fighting, but otherwise fine like before. So she doesn’t worry about herself anymore. She’s concerned about the world again - just like an avatar should be.

She is determined to solve ‘the Kuvira problem’ as soon as possible - she wasted three years and the world got into a mess because of that, and now she will not wait any longer to fix it, now that she fixed herself.

And also, this would be the best way to make a statement about her presence again (”The world needs to know”) (Korra is doing a PR campaign?). But. She’s still not too happy about the fact that she needs to make a statement at all. The guilt is still present.

But thank’s Tenzin and Pema for Meelo:

Meelo is happy about the fight, but this isn’t something Korra is thinking about.

She thinks highly about Kuvira. First of all, because she saved her dad; and secondly - because she was highly ranked in Su’s guards. Furthermore, she was one of the guards, who tried to save her, rushed there after Aiwei blow up his place in their faces and searched for him afterwards. Korra acknowledges Kuvira. Even if the latter does not know about that.



This plays very nicely to the Korra we saw in book 3 when they meet Kai (“He just needs some guidance.”). And this is her further development and spiritual growth too. In the swamp she learned that her enemies weren’t evil by default or just for the enjoyment of being evil (unlike Fire Lord Ozai seemed to be). They had ideals who 'went south’ and that’s why they lost control of everything, including themselves. So she thinks, that talking to Kuvira and learning her point of view, and, later maybe trying to show her other possibilities to achieve whatever that goal of hers is, might be better. Way better. Especially since she knows that Kuvira has a great feeling of responsibility and wish to help (based on her previous knowledge she gained during her time in Zoufu and the fight with Zaheer).





And then we get Asami.

(sorry, i’m such a big sucker for hands).

At this point, i’m not sure anyone knew that this is Asami. We see hands and quite big pile of unopened letters (thank’s for the wax stamp). We can get a feeling, that this is important. Especially since letters and communication (or, to be more exact, being in touch with the ones that you care about and vice versa) is a big thing in this book.

After a moment we know that this is Asami next to the letters. And from her look, we can assume that these letters are important. She’s still not sure about them. Still not sure if it’s the right thing to do, is it right (for her?) that she came here, that she brought them here. (and I, as a viewer, still don’t know where “here” is). She looks doubtful about every action she made (and is making) until this moment. Here she probably draws the other possible turn of events with all the possible “ifs” (if she didn’t came, if she didn’t brought the letters, if she have read them, maybe she needed just to destroy them, what is in them, etc.).



But we don’t know why exactly that is, why Asami looks the way she does. Until we hear a voice that brings Asami back from her thoughts jumping a bit as if she was caught of guard.







This is a classical composition. I guess this is how people sit when they visit someone in prison, but to me, this associates more with dining. Only difference, that letters are served and not food for stomach.



This also gets as a bit of idea of how both parties are feeling. Asami is sitting straight, legs are a bit bent behind the chair - she’s definitely a high society lady. Her head is leaning forward a bit, but that might be only the design of her in this particular pose. Despite her former hesitation and uncertainty about her actions, she looks strong, confident and determined. Also, her hands are closer to her - she might be consciously or not distancing herself from the person sitting in front of her.

Hiroshi, on the other hand, is very different. He is broken. Not only any signs of confidence are nowhere to be found, but he also looks like a living skeleton. He’s broken. Not sure about the body, but his soul is definitely broken. His hands are further towards the centre of the table - towards Asami. As if he wants to take her hand, to build a contact with her (any kind of).

Also, the letters are between them. From a compositional perspective, they might act as a separation symbol here.









Then Asami reaches for the letters and pushes them to her father’s side. She’s dealing with this meeting as with a casual business meeting - she’s here to do her thing and get on with her whatever she has to do next.











But why would Asami come to her father now? How long has it been from his imprisonment? Three - four years. From that pile of letters, we can see, that he wasn’t writing to her every day. We even don’t know when he started to write. But never the less, that’s not a small pile. So why now, Asami?

Let’s recap what happened:

1) Korra was gone for three years. Asami wrote to her, but got only one replay after two years.

2) Korra supposed to come back to the city, but it appeared that she was gone for half a year to nobody-knew-where. During that time, she wrote letters from whatever the location to her father. Lying. Nothing to her. Even though she was willing to open up in that only letter about her deepest fears, to be the most vulnerable in front of Asami, the only person who have seen her in every possible way (except the blue giant spirit-y thing).

3) We don’t know exactly how much time have passed since Tenzin sent of his kids to look for Korra. I would guess he did it next day or two days (the most) after the coronation fiasco. Nevertheless, my guess that there are “few days” before coronation, then the fiasco, then the preparation time for the mission to find Korra. My guess is that the kids have been looking for Korra for about 4 - 5 days. My guess, Asami didn’t get any news about how the search was going on. She just needed to sit and wait. And she isn’t the person who would be able to sit and wait doing nothing. she had too many things in herself.

4) The pile of the letters from her father was probably sitting somewhere in the lower drawer of her work desk. Or maybe somewhere on her bookshelf. The 'kind-of-pretend-forgotten-place’. But they were constantly looking at her. Sometimes even staring. Did she ever wanted to open them? I bet she did. It was her father. The one, who raised her and took care of her. Taught her a lot of things. But. It also was her father, who betrayed the memory of her mother, all the ideals he and her mother once taught her, and tried to kill her. To kill all of them. So she didn’t want to read any word from him.

5) But Korra was gone. Mako was busy. Bolin was gone. Not that she could connect with them on the highest emotional level. But still. She was alone (again?). And the only connection left was the one, that was staring at her from the 'kind-of-pretend-forgotten-place’. For me, it’s a sign of desperate need for a relationship, a bond. A need for a deep connection with another human being. We are social animals after all. Loneliness is something most choose not because they are lonely by nature, but because they are afraid to get hurt. Asami is not one of them (although getting hurt isn’t her most favourite thing). After the level she was beaten - nothing can make her crumble (for now). She wants a person who she can talk to. Or connect some kind of other way (like playing Pai Sho). So maybe that is why 'now’.





“I’m here to return these.” - this is the tone one uses when he goes back to a shop to return a bad purchase. She needs to stay strong. She can’t show her weaknesses to this man who, basically in a way, killed her father - it’s someone in her father’s body but not her father.





But when Hiroshi says: “You never opened them.”, we know that Asami puts all of her self control not to show emotions. Why? Because she clenches her fists right after these words of her father (the movement is very slight and fast, but it’s there <- no gif from me, you’ll have to go watch the episode to see it).





And then her voice changes. It’s more irritated, angry, carrying hard feelings.

She makes her point, says everything what she wanted to say and stands immediately to go out (like a real business woman).





As she stands up to go, she does not even look at him. Actually, there aren’t many moments she looked at him. Which is also an indicator, that it’s hard for her to deal with her emotions.







Hiroshi: “Asami, please. Let me say one thing and then I’ll never contact you again.”

Asami closes her eyes after that. If I would take a guess, she needed to swallow the hard lump in her throat. In my opinion, emotionally she was on the verge of cracking. She needed to do this to calm herself down. She will have to look at her father while he was saying that only thing. After which he won’t contact her again. Ever. This brings up some very mixed feeling to her.

So she takes her time. Closes her eyes. Swallows the lump. Takes a deep breath. Calms herself. Sits down back.

Only when there are few centimetres left, she opens her eyes - another indication of the fact, that emotionally this is hard for her.

And she’s still not ready to look at him.





She turned her eyes away also when they last time where kind of together (book 1 in the mecha-tanks).



And then Hiroshi speaks. He admits all the wrong doings and apologizes for everything. Asami just sits there listening to the words of once so familiar voice bouncing on her ear-drum. I would not be suirprised if her fathers voice sounded so very distant to her, that it was hard for her to distinguish each word and their meaning. The second option: that she heard his words very clearly. And that voice, those words mixed with the contradicting memories was the overspill for her.

She looks empathetic. But to whom? Him or herself? One of her hands is under the table, the other - on the table. She’s holding a fist, looking away. She’s not sitting straight. The situation gives her mixed feelings: it’s uncomfortable for her, but it’s also might give something she craves for - the connection. No matter how bad (and she knows that it might be bad). But it’s a connection. I would guess that somewhere in her mind she wanted that he (or someone close to her, very very close to her) took her by that hand and said that everything was going to be all right. No matter how strong Asami is by nature, she needs some reassurance from time to time. Especially in moments like these, when everything seem to fall apart again (only it’s not her company now. And she can’t fix it by making new contracts or by building stuff).







When Hiroshi speaks further (“You’re the one thing that I look back on, that makes me smile.”), Asami turns away further from him and closes her eyes. He hit her heart.





In the next shot, her eyes a open again, but they are how they are expected to be - full of tears waiting to run her cheek. Hiroshi did hit her spot and is putting the last drops for her glass.





Hiroshi: “I just want you to know - I’m so proud of you, Asami.” - more water gather in Asami’s eyes - “YOU are the greatest thing I’ve ever created.” - even more water. But that’s no wonder - that’s hard stuff he says there. And Hiroshi looks at Asami as a proud dad would. And honestly, he has every right to be proud (right from the very beginning, when she turned against him. And I think that he also means that time too here).

And Asami breaks down. Tears are running down her cheeks. And Hiroshi sees it. His eyes changes a bit to more compassionate ones. Maybe he just happy to see, that his wonderful daughter has feelings for him. The tears in Asami’s face might have given him some hope that they might reconnect after all. But.

That’s it. Asami will keep her word. She came here to give back his letters. She took a small bonus by staying to listen what he had to say. But now she’ll leave. No matter the words he told. And the tears that stream.

And from the sound of her shoes, we know that she ran out of the prison. She needed to ran away from him. From those emotions. At that moment - from everything.

Because of those overflowing emotions, she might have ended up wondering why she came there in the first place (she was looking for a connection unconsciously, but I doubt that even one of the scenarios she was playing in her head turned out like this - just because she hoped it won’t). Asami worked so hard to keep her feelings for her father closed. Her dad (she kept to herself a lot of feelings actually). She collected herself, prepared herself for this meeting (might have practised what and how to say). This first and the last meeting. And he does this…thing by being her dad again. Like he used to. She can’t handle anymore. This is emotional overflow. The last drop of water that makes the glass too full. And that’s way she ran. Like a gazelle from a pride of lions.









Back to Korra.

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