Legend of Korra: The Calling Review

Korra continues to find her way in "The Calling." 

*Spoilers Ahead*

After three strong episodes, "The Calling" is a bit of a letdown, yet still a lot of fun at times. With Korra out still overcoming her inner struggle with Toph in the swamp, Tenzin's kids, Jinora, Ikki and Meelo are sent out to find Korra and bring her home. 

As expected with an episode focusing on the kids, there is an unfortunate amount of juvenile humor. Considering that the Legend of Korra has been so mature in the last few episodes, the shift to a more child like tone, akin to the first season of The Last Airbender, is off putting. However, the kids' adventure did seem like a fun throwback to The Last Airbender as times, and Ikki's line, "Remember when he used to be so nice and sweet?" with Junora replying "No," did make me laugh. One small issue about Jinora's character design is that even though she is just as old as the characters in TLA, her character design still looks a little too young. Maybe I have just been watching too much anime, but shouldn't see look a little older?

Meelo is annoying as ever, although he did have a few good moments. The conflict between the siblings felt fittingly juvenile for kids their age, although not all that interesting. Ikki being captured by the Kuvira's soldiers again felt like a throwback to TLA's first season, but not necessarily in a good way. In many ways, a lot of the kids' scenes could have been cut to make room for more Korra and Toph. 

 

While 3/4 of the episode focused on the kids, we did get to see more of Toph and Korra, which is always welcome. Toph continued to be the Toph that we all know and love. At the end of the episode with Korra hugging Toph was both hilarious and satsifying, especially after last week's "Go hug a tree joke." The Korra scenes in general, ending with Korra removing the poison from body were satisfying, and provided an end to Korra’s character arc setup in the beginning of the season. If the series season lasted longer than 13 episodes, it would have been great to have another episode with Toph in the swamp, but the plot needs to move forward. One thing did strike me as odd, which was what Toph said about their old adventures from TLA series. How did Toph know about the giant turtle? Maybe Aang told her, otherwise she would not have known (unless I am forgetting something).

Now with Korra back in action and able to enter the Avatar State, Korra's battle against Kuvira's forces is likely to beginning soon.

Overall: 7.9/10- While a bit juvenile, "The Calling" is fun episode that is necessary to move the plot forward. 

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