Summary: There are two sides to every coin. Without one, there can be no other.
Rating: K+
Pairing: None
There's a tingling sensation- a pressure. It's warm, maybe. She doesn't know. She just feels.
Voices are calling out vacantly behind her, warning her to run, warning her to get away, but she blocks them out. Seventeen years I've ignored this, she thinks, and it's time to make up for it.
The spirit, dark and large and imposing, seems to relax under her palm. She stands there, hand on its chest, and it doesn't move, and she doesn't move, trying instead to reach out to that unknown warmth for answers. Her energy weaves into the spirit's body and its own energy curls back into itself, towards a core.
It sits. It does not yield- it simply sits. Korra is glad. She doesn't want to be like her uncle, Unalaq, who turned out to be more of a dictator than a mentor. He doesn't purify the spirits- he numbs them, forces them to light instead of darkness. He makes them to bend to his will, just like he did to her- just like he tried to do the Southern Water Tribe.
Korra doesn't want to be like him. She wants to be just Korra. She wants to listen to this spirit. She wants, for once in her life, to understand.
The pressure blooms into something firmer and she suddenly feels the warmth enveloping her, surrounding her, building into her own heart. This is the spirit. This is what it feels. There is no anger, nor rage. There is darkness, but no evil. There is sadness.
Such painful, horrible sadness.
Korra sees the trees, the once beautiful trees; the spirits' destroyed home. It's not trying to hurt anyone- they're not trying to hurt anyone. They're looking for help. They want her to help them.
She wants to help them, too.
She lets her eyes open and watches as, from the chest, the spirit's color begins to change. The midnight fades, but there is not sparkling gold. There is blue- neutral, beautiful blue. Balance.
Quietly, she says, "I'm your Avatar, too." The sadness fades away to hope and she feels, tangibly, what it is feeling. Excitement and adrenaline clash with the peace in her veins as she finds her own balance. "I'm sorry."
And there's a rumble at its core, like it's apologizing, too. Then, it pulls away, the contact ending quickly as the clouds, once whipping with angry snow, break up. The spirit begins to leave, steps nimble and quick, but suddenly it turns. It looks at her, really looks at her, and she sees in that blue a reflection of herself.
For the first time in months, she really likes what she sees.
She is not a caged bird in this reflection. She is not a violent monster. She is not an ignorant fool. She is Korra- bull-headed, sure, naïve, maybe, brash, yes, but also brave and loyal and strong.
And in that reflection she sees herself making a promise. One she intends to keep.
The spirit's faceless form smiles at her. It vanishes quietly with the breeze, and night brightens as it dances in the sky.
.
.
.
.
So, no real plot. Just sorta a character analysis? Maybe a situational analysis?
Damn it, what can I say? The character development in these two episodes was AMAZING. I want Korra learning about the spirits with Jinora and learning to understand them and finding her own path without all these old dudes telling her what to do yes