Legend of Korra: 5 Reasons Why Zaheer is the Best Villain (and 5 Why It's Kuvira)
Nickelodeon's The Legend of Korra continues the fantasy tale launched in Avatar: The Last Airbender, but with some twists. It is 70 years later, and Avatar Korra faces not one foe, but several! Where Aang only contended with the Fire Nation and Fire Lord Ozai, Korra meets a new villain in every season of The Legend of Korra. First, she battles the anti-bender revolutionary Amon, then the spirit-loving madman Unalaq (hosting Vaatu).
Seasons 3 and 4 bring us some of the best villains in the entire franchise. In season 3, Korra faces off against the anarchist terrorist Zaheer, and three years later in season 4, the militant visionary Kuvira has risen to power. Both Zaheer and Kuvira are fascinating villains, but there are some ways that Zaheer is truly the best, and some why Kuvira is the ultimate villain.
10 Zaheer: An acrobat air bender
From Fire Lord Ozai to Amon to Kuvira, all of the major villains in this franchise are powerful benders. But Zaheer is the lone air bender among them, and it's fascinating (and horrifying) to see air bending used like this. In fact, Zaheer commits one of the few on-screen murders with the power of air!
He's an acrobat, too, which is a natural fit for his air bender ways. This makes him a match for even the air bending master Tenzin when they duel at last.
9 Kuvira: "I have an army"
Zaheer's gang of bender anarchists are cool and all, but they're not a large-scale military! Kuvira truly sets the standard for army-building, and it's incredible that she assembled such an advanced and regimented army in just three years.
Her forces range from earth bender infantry to mecha suits to armored zeppelins and more, and her banner is soon flying across the former Earth Kingdom. It's also reminiscent of the Fire Nation army of old but with an earth theme this time.
8 Zaheer: Elite squad
Zaheer's Red Lotus organization is far from an army. But given Zaheer's goals and skills, a small, elite squad is really all he needs. An army would stand out anyway, and Zaheer wouldn't like the bureaucracy of it all.
Instead, this air bending anarchist fights with a lava bender, another combustion fire bender, and a terrifying water bender! This covert squad can infiltrate any nation or stronghold, and take it all down from within. Who needs quantity when you've got quality like this? Together, those four can take on any nation!
7 Kuvira: Elite metal bender
Kuvira is far from the only metal bender out there, and most likely, the elderly Toph Beifong is still the world's top metal bender. Still, Kuvira has proven herself an expert in metal bending, and with these futuristic battles taking place, metal bending is more relevant than ever. Kuvira's just riding the curve.
She can also use those metal strips on her uniform as weapons, and as we see in Kuvira's first duel with Korra, those metal strips make for incredible weapons.
6 Zaheer: His philosophy
The villains in The Legend of Korra, unlike those in ATLA, have a gift for presenting philosophies and worldviews that are difficult to entirely refute. Zaheer bursts onto the scene during the Earth Queen's tyrannical reign, bringing a message of a world free of tyrants, exploitation, and oppressive laws.
He's an anarchist, but not just out of spite. He truly believes that this is the route to freedom, and with the Earth Queen looming over everything, it's tough to argue with that. He also incorporates natural philosophy into his ideas, saying how wild animals never have laws or kingdoms, but live in total harmony. Why can't human beings do the same?
5 Kuvira: Strategy
Zaheer is clever and ruthless, yes, but Kuvira really shows off her villain chops with that empire of hers. To her credit, Kuvira devised the perfect method for uniting the fractured Earth Kingdom, and she brought nearly every province, town, and city into line.
She also proved herself a cool and capable leader when her army confronted Zaofu, and the same was true of her assault on Republic City. Kuvira is a general to the bone.
4 Zaheer: Spirits
No, Zaheer did not rally an army of spirits to his side as Unalaq did. But then again, Zaheer shows the breadth of his skills when he delved into the spirit world a number of times. In this way, he met with Aiwei with total privacy, until Korra and her team realized what Zaheer was doing and followed him into the spirit world.
In season 4, Zaheer partially escaped the confines of prison by traveling into the spirit world often. He even gave Korra some sage advice there, since they were no longer enemies.
3 Kuvira: Weapons of war
Kuvira has a pretty big army under her command, and that includes some cutting-edge tech. She had more than one super-weapon up her sleeve, starting with a massive spirit cannon. Making use of spirit vines and power reminiscent of Vaatu's, Kuvira made a rail-based cannon that could destroy an entire town in one shot!
If that weren't enough, she later mounted it on a towering colossus that nearly spelled doom for Republic City and all of its defenders!
2 Zaheer: He's unpredictable
One surefire way to make an engaging character is to make them unpredictable. A character like Zaheer will still have a coherent worldview and goal, but how they achieve that goal is tough to foresee. Zaheer is not bound to any nation or flag, and the only cause he respects is his own.
He strikes wherever he can, and this ranges from his midnight raid in Zaofu to assassinating the Earth Queen all the way to the hostage situation at the air temple. Time and again, Zaheer is one step ahead of his opponents, and they scramble to keep up.
1 Kuvira: She really wanted to help
Zaheer believed that he was restoring the world to its rightful and natural order, but Kuvira was a little more down to earth. Right then and there, she saw the suffering of the Earth Kingdom people as anarchy consumed the nation, and she took action at once.
She really did want to unite the land into a coherent whole and restore order and prosperity. This vision is what inspired so many people, from Bataar Jr. to Bolin to Varrick and Zhu Lee, to join her. The problem is that she became paranoid and power-hungry, and started abusing the very people she tried to protect.