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I'd like to make an announcement to the world: the Earth Kingdom is no more. And from here on out, this man has no authority. I have created a new Earth Empire, and I will continue to lead it into the future myself, bringing about a new era of prosperity for my people. And let me assure my fellow leaders of one thing: anyone who crosses our borders or stands in our way will be crushed!
~ Kuvira's warning at Wu's coronation.
Today, we stand on the precipice of history. For the past three years, we've fought side by side to unite the Earth Empire and we've proven that no one can stand in our way, not even the Avatar. But our mission is not yet complete. There is a grave injustice that must be corrected. As you all know, after the Hundred Year War, Avatar Aang, along with Fire Lord Zuko, stole Earth Empire land and formed the United Republic. This land belongs to the people of the Earth Empire and it's time to take it back! Republic City will be ours!
~ Kuvira's plans to conquer Republic City.
Don't pretend you know what it felt like! The Avatar is adored by millions; I was cast aside by my own parents like I meant nothing to them! How could I just stand by and watch the same thing happen to my nation when it needed someone to guide it!?
~ Kuvira breaking down in front of Korra, explaining her motives.

General Kuvira is a major character of The Legend of Korra, the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender. She first appeared as a minor character in Book Three: Change and later became the main antagonist of Book Four: Balance.

She is a political and military leader and the fourth and final archenemy of Avatar Korra, as well as her evil counterpart. She originally served as a captain of the Metal Clan guard in Zaofu. After the Earth Queen Hou-Ting was assassinated at the hands of Zaheer, Kuvira left behind Suyin's back and spent three years stabilizing the Earth Kingdom through military means. After succeeding in her goal of stabilizing the Earth Kingdom, Kuvira refused to step down, declaring herself the Supreme Leader of the Earth Empire and turning the nation into a totalitarian dictatorship.

Kuvira grew into more of an extremist as she progressed with her mission, causing other world leaders to fear that she would declare war on other nations. Kuvira eventually did just that by attempting to invade and conquer the United Republic of Nations, but ultimately surrendered after Avatar Korra saved her life and made her realize that she had gone too far in her efforts.

She was voiced by Zelda Williams.

Appearance[]

Kuvira is a tall, slender, muscular young woman usually clad in Earth Kingdom armor. Her beautiful visage notably garnered attention from Prince Wu.

Personality[]

Something you should know about me: I always get what I want.
~ Kuvira about herself.
You're a monster. I regret nothing.
~ Zhu Li calling Kuvira out for all of the atrocities she has caused.

Being extremely charismatic, intelligent, courageous, physically formidable, and having an indomitable willpower, Kuvira possesses all of the fundamental character traits of an ambitious commander and successful leader. Kuvira was driven by a fierce desire to provide protection and guidance to the citizens of the Earth Kingdom and sought national unity which she believed military force could achieve. She is hostile to those who criticize her intentions or methods. Kuvira is also wise and insightful, believing that giving control of the Earth Kingdom to someone based on their lineage was a nearly anachronistic practice, though this also made her self-righteous enough to believe no one was better suited to govern than herself. After the Avatar criticized her actions and attempted to stop her, Kuvira grew increasingly reckless, carelessly arousing the wrath of the spirits, and attempting to murder her own boyfriend with a superlaser. However, after Korra saved her life and it became apparent that she would not succeed, she surrendered to Republic City, accepting whatever punishment they saw fit to impose and stating she owed Korra a life debt.

During her time in Zaofu, Kuvira was a warm, loyal, and caring young woman, fully obedient to her former superiors, and enjoying participating in dance practice and defending the city from malevolent forces such as the Red Lotus.

Biography[]

The Metal Clan[]

Kuvira began her life in the Metal Clan when Suyin took her under her wing as a child, and raised her like a daughter. She became the captain of the Metal Clan's city guard, as well as a dancer in Suyin Beifong's dance troupe. She was present when the Metal Clan welcomed Team Avatar to Zaofu and participated in the attack against Zaheer and his associates after their failed attempt to kidnap Avatar Korra. Kuvira and the city guards searched the city for them but to no avail, and all took part in being questioned by Aiwei, the city's truth-seer. When Aiwei's conspiracy with the Red Lotus was exposed, Suyin ordered Kuvira to search the city for him, but was lead to a dead end.

Stopping the Red Lotus[]

When Suyin received word of the Air Nation being held hostage by the Red Lotus, the Metal Clan traveled to the Northern Air Temple in a rescue attempt, while Kuvira went with Tonraq, Lin and Suyin to ensure the Red Lotus did not back down on their deal. When Mako alerted Lin they were double crossed, they proceeded to rescue Korra, but several were blown off the mountain by P'Li's combustion attack. When Tonraq fell, Kuvira rescued him and bandaged his wounds, formally introducing herself to him. When they learned where the airbenders were being held, Kuvira requested to accompany them on the rescue mission, but was ordered by Suyin to stay with the injured, an order Kuvira accepted.

Kuvira's Army[]

Korra: Before, you were always talking about chaos and freedom. Then you took out the Earth Queen and created the worst dictator the Earth Kingdom has ever seen. Thanks for that!
Zaheer: I've heard rumors about her, but I didn't know she achieved so much power. She needs to be stopped.
~ Korra and Zaheer, about Kuvira.

Although the Red Lotus was defeated, they did succeed in murdering the Earth Queen Hou-Ting, causing the entire Earth Kingdom to descend into anarchy. The world leaders turned to Suyin Beifong to restore order to the Earth Kingdom, but she declined on the grounds that she did not want to impose her ideals on the nation feeling that she would be seen as an aggressive conqueror rather than a savior. Kuvira, however, quickly seized the opportunity, forming a rift between herself and Suyin. Kuvira then left Zaofu along with Baatar Jr., Suyin's eldest son taking most of the city's military force with her.

Both Kuvira and Baatar Jr. went on a mission to unite the Earth Kingdom through military might (and along the way, the two became engaged). They spent the next three years traveling by train getting state leaders to agree to deals that, in exchange for pledging loyalty to her, they would be under Kuvira's protection from pillagers as well be given supplies for the citizens. She also purged her new nation of all dissenters and citizens of foreign origins, throwing both groups into prison camps.

While Kuvira's efforts to slowly reunite the kingdom were proving successful, she quickly became a controversial figure as news spread of her ruthless and tyrannical methods to annex states to her cause as well as rumors that the towns she supported were soon left in distress again due to her excessive military control being imposed. Nonetheless, most of the Earth Kingdom supported Kuvira and considered her a better leader than the previous Queen.

Kuvira enlists bandits

After single-handedly defeating twenty bandits, Kuvira forced them all to pledge their loyalty to her.

Kuvira, now accompanied by Bolin, Varrick, and Zhu Li, was informed that nearly 90% of the Earth Kingdom's states had pledged their loyalty to her, though Kuvira was unsatisfied, stating she would not be pleased until they were all united. Upon being stopped by a trap laid by bandits, Kuvira single-handedly took them down, and offered them a deal to either join her army or remain chained to the train rail where they would be run over. The bandits eagerly pledged their loyalty to Kuvira. When arriving in the state of Yi, Opal was not pleased to see Kuvira or her brother Baatar Jr., or to hear that the two were engaged, and mentioned that Suyin found their actions to be traitorous. She met with the governor of Yi, offering a treaty that would place Yi under her protection, but the governor called her a manipulator and accused her of only being interested in Yi's reputable supply of ore. Kuvira warned him that by not signing her treaty, he risked the starvation of his people and defeat at the hands of the bandits. Despite the governor's refusal to sign, Kuvira left the contract with Kai, stating she would wait by the border for one more day to give him a chance to reconsider. After bandits stole what little supplies were meant to go to Yi, the governor reluctantly signed the treaty and pledged his loyalty to her, placing Yi under Kuvira's protection.

The Earth Empire[]

Kuvira crushes

Kuvira crushed the Kyoshi Medal of Freedom she had been given by Earth King Wu to emphasize what the Earth Empire under her rule would do to those who opposed them.

She forced President Raiko to pardon Varrick for his crimes and allow him back into Republic City, where she and her allies attended Prince Wu's coronation. Before the coronation, she falsely promised to step down as the Earth Kingdom's new leader. During Wu's inaugural speech, she took over and announced her plans for the Earth Empire, saying that leadership should not be decided by birthright and that any who stood in her way would be "crushed," disfiguring the Kyoshi medal of freedom given to her by Wu for emphasis. This earned her massive support from the crowd, except for all the world leaders. When Bolin found himself skeptical of Kuvira's words, she reassured him that "being crushed" was "simply a rhetoric meaning that she meant business".

The world leaders chose Suyin as their spokesperson, sending her to go speak with Kuvira on their behalf. Kuvira admonished her for not stepping up and fixing the Earth Kingdom, while Suyin retorted with the fact that she didn't want the power. Kuvira threatened Suyin, saying that she knew what would happen to Zaofu if she did not join her. Meanwhile, she had Varrick collect spirit vines from around Republic City to construct a new technology, stating it was now his number one priority.

Invading Zaofu[]

With Zaofu as the last remaining territory that had not yet been united with the rest of the Earth Empire, she gathered her army and marched on her former home. However, with the other world leaders watching her closely, she wanted to make the attempt to negotiate with Suyin using her trust in Bolin. Meanwhile, Varrick was experimenting with the spirit vines to create a superweapon, but the energy from the vine caused an explosion, and the engineer resolved to put a stop to the project. Kuvira responded by threatening to kill him, to which he agreed to continue the research. Bolin attempted to convince Suyin that Kuvira only wanted the best for the world, but Opal brought up that Kuvira throws dissenters into prison camps. Suyin makes it clear that she will not hand over Zaofu, and Kuvira gives her a day's warning before she takes the city by force.

During this time, Korra arrived in Zaofu and attempted to reason with Kuvira, informing her that her methods were wrong. Kuvira responded by telling her how hard the decisions she had to make were, and Korra admitted that she knew the feeling, resolving to talk things over with Suyin once more before an official siege began.

Soon after, Bolin posed a lot of questions to Kuvira regarding her methods, to which she responded by threatening him. Bolin joined Varrick and Zhu Li in deserting the army, but Baatar Jr. caught up to the trio and arrested them. Kuvira ordered they be imprisoned, but Zhu Li turned on Varrick and pledged her loyalty to the warlord. Kuvira decided to give her one more chance, but left the other two deserters to their punishment.

Kuvira2

Having predicted Suyin's sneak attack, Kuvira set up an ambush.

Later that night, Suyin and her twin sons attempted to sneak into Kuvira's camp to assassinate her, but they were discovered when they mistakenly attacked Zhu Li while she was asleep. Kuvira knew she would try a sneak attack and held them hostage, informing the Zaofu citizens that Suyin violated the negotiation. The next morning, Korra attempted to negotiate peacefully with Kuvira one last time, but she instead proposed a duel, stating that the victor could do as they wished with Zaofu.

The warlord easily held the upper hand against the Avatar, but was instantly at a disadvantage upon Korra entering the Avatar State. Just as she was about to land the finishing blow on Kuvira, she began hallucinating her poisoned self in Kuvira's place, and collapsed. Kuvira restrained her, but just as she was about to end the fight, Opal and Jinora, who were observing the battle, interfered. The warlord sent her army to annex Zaofu, and even after Jinora called her siblings for reinforcement, they were outnumbered, and were forced to escape with Korra in tow.

After the battle, Kuvira declared herself victorious with Zaofu under her control. She announced to the citizens that anyone who did not bow before her would be imprisoned along with Suyin and her sons. The only ones who refused were Baatar and Huan, who were immediately arrested. Meanwhile, Baatar Jr. had witnessed the apparent deaths of Bolin and Varrick, as well as the destruction of the spirit vine machinery, but he was certain that he could resume the research with the help of Zhu Li. Kuvira agreed to this, and ordered the dismantling of Zaofu's domes.

Constructing A New Weapon[]

Some time later, she traveled with Baatar Jr. and others from the Earth Empire military to the Foggy Swamp after discovering that the roots of the Banyan Grove Tree could be used as power supply for her developing superweapon, and she ordered them to harvest the vines until there was nothing left. However, unbeknownst to her, this had consequences in Republic City when the Spirit Wilds turned hostile and began imprisoning the populace in the Spirit World.

She planned to test her superweapon by destroying a nearby abandoned town, but during the testing, Baatar Jr. kept noticing that parts of the machinery were either damaged or missing. Without her knowing, Zhu Li was intentionally sabotaging the weapon, and when she was discovered, Kuvira ordered the guards to chain her in the abandoned town so she would be executed in the blast. During the second test of the weapon that was intended to kill Zhu Li, she discovered too late that the Beifongs had escaped their prison, and they successfully changed the trajectory of the blast so the town would remain unharmed. A battle ensued, and Kuvira dueled and was victorious against Suyin, leaving the Beifongs surrounded until Toph toppled the entire battalion. The Beifongs escaped with Zhu Li in tow, and she informed them that Kuvira planned to attack Republic City in two weeks.

You give metalbenders a bad name!
~ Toph to Kuvira


Attacking Republic City[]

Kuvira then sought to correct the "grave injustice" that Aang and Zuko had committed by retaking Republic City for the Earth Empire. After her speech, Baatar Jr. confessed his love for her, and she told him they could finally marry and rule their empire together after taking the city, embracing him. Having suspected Zhu Li escaped with the information about her attack, Kuvira commenced the invasion a week earlier than planned. Unknown to even her own soldiers, she had constructed a giant mecha, where she would place her superweapon. She used it to destroy a guard post and almost shot down Team Avatar when they went to cut the rail lines, which they thought she needed in order to transport her weapon to the city.

Kuvira

Kuvira looks on as she destroys the factory where Team Avatar and her fiance were located.

When she arrived in the city, she demonstrated her weapon's power by destroying a few structures, forcing Raiko to surrender. However, unknown to both parties, Korra and Iroh planned to capture Baatar Jr., who was supposed to discuss the terms of surrender with the president. Once he had been captured, Korra told him that he would never see Kuvira again if she didn't leave Republic City alone, and agreed to let her have the Earth Empire. Baatar contacted Kuvira with the same information and proposed that they settle down in Zaofu, and after confessing her love to him, she locked on to Baatar's location and fired her cannon, destroying the mechs that Varrick and Asami had been constructing.

Though Team Avatar was supposedly crushed by the blast, Bolin's earthbending saved them. A number of tactics were attempted to bring down the giant mecha suit, including lavabending the suit's legs and trapping it within an electromagnetic pulse blast, but all failed. What succeeded was with two hummingbird suits (piloted by Varrick and Zhu Li in one and Asami and her father Hiroshi Sato in the other) drilling a hole inside the suit with plasma saws designed by Hiroshi during the Equalist revolution. Though the plan worked and Team Avatar managed to get inside the hole, it cost Hiroshi his life, ejecting his daughter from the hummingbird suit before he himself was crushed by the giant metal hand of the mecha suit.

Kuvira, now beginning to lose control of the situation, orders her subordinates to find the intruders. When she finds her spirit energy weapon to be useless on the suit, she uses the sole functioning arm of the giant suit to rip off the arm and throw it aside with Lin and Suyin still inside. Korra blasts her way in to the control room and battles Kuvira once more, both dueling evenly for several minutes. However, during their battle, Mako zapped the power core with lightning, causing a massive explosion and splitting the suit in half. Korra and Kuvira fall out from their half. The Avatar declares the fight over, but Kuvira, not ready to give up, lands a blow on Korra when her guard is down, and runs off into the Spirit Wilds. She continues to run from Korra until she finds her spirit energy cannon hanging from the vines, and uses it in a last attempt to destroy Korra. Kuvira ignores Korra's pleas not to fire the weapon, and the weapon immediately goes out of control and wreaks havoc on the city as it begins to absorb the spirit energy from the vines. Kuvira's attempt to shut down the weapon prove to be futile and she's knocked into the ground and is nearly killed by the weapon's blast, but Korra goes into the Avatar State and uses energy-bending to deflect the blast. The collision between Korra's bending and the cannon's blast causes a massive explosion which destroys the wilds but creates a new spirit portal which Korra and Kuvira were thrown into.

Defeat and Surrender[]

Kuvira woke up in the spirit world and initially believed that the she and Korra were dead, but the latter explained that was not the case. The warlord exclaimed her confusion with the Avatar's decision to save her life, to which Korra stated that she "saw a lot of [herself] in [Kuvira]."

At first, Kuvira was incredibly dismissive of this statement, declaring the Avatar knew nothing about her and could not place herself in her shoes as an orphan. Korra concluded that Kuvira was attempting to create a nation where its citizens never felt vulnerable again, which the latter did not refute. Realizing that she had been defeated, Kuvira surrendered to Republic City, stating that she would accept whatever consequences they saw fit.

Fate[]

Several months after she was sentenced to life imprisonment for her crimes, Kuvira was temporarily released from her prison so she could assist in stopping Guan, the former commander of her southern forces, from taking power and attempting to re-establish the Earth Empire. Due to Kuvira's heroic actions, Guan was stopped. Suyin, sympathetic to Kuvira for trying to do the right thing and atone for her past mistakes, had her sentence altered so she could live out the rest of her sentence at her home in Zaofu. Kuvira was concerned that Suyin's family would not welcome her (especially Baatar, Jr.) but she was reassured by Suyin, who told her that they would all come around, since she will always be a part of their family.

Abilities[]

  • Peak-human condition: Kuvira keeps in excellent shape.
  • Earthbending: Kuvira is one of the strongest Earthbenders.
    • Metalbending: Kuvira is adept at the bending of metal.
  • Master combatant: Kuvira is able to go toe-to-toe with Korra, albeit in a time where she struggled to tap into the Avatar State.
  • Expert tactician: Kuvira is a skillful strategist, outperforming the state governor of Yi by far and annexing much of the Earth Kingdom territories.
  • Expert leader: Kuvira's leadership skills are remarkable and they earned her the title of the "Great Uniter".
  • Intelligence: Kuvira’s intelligence showcase that she has excellent memory skills, who’s skills complimented by Bataar Jr., as she explained the details of the brainwashing machine.

Gallery[]

Images[]

Videos[]

Trivia[]

  • Kuvira's physical appearance resembles that of her voice actress, Zelda Williams.
  • Every major Legend of Korra villain is an allegory for a political ideology. Kuvira represents imperialistic fascist or socialist dictators and she is frequently compared to real-life tyrants Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Fidel Castro, and Mao Zedong. Fascists and socialists believe in the state controlling the means of production, thus rendering all property publicly owned and workers being paid by their needs. Like Amon, Kuvira believes in providing equality to her people, but only if they are willing to comply with her rule, forcing dissenters into re-education camps.
  • Kuvira is the second main antagonist after Zaheer to live at the end of the season.
  • Kuvira's plans to reannex the United Republic of Nations is similar to that of Hou-Ting, and both stated reasons were that Aang and Zuko had stolen their land.
    • Kuvira's plans to reclaim the United Republic also resemble the real-world conflicts of Israel-Palestine and Western Sahara, as well as Qin Shi Huangdi's successful attempts to unify ancient Chinese kingdoms during the warring states period.
  • Kuvira has a similar personality with Ozai and later majority Azula's as the series progresses through the rest of Book 4. However, unlike Ozai, she redeems herself from her mistakes by surrendering and all she really wanted was not to be alone, similar to how Azula really feels when her mother didn't pay attention to her.
  • In some ways, Kuvira is the polar opposite of Korra as Unalaq is to Tenzin in both physical build and personal worldviews.
  • Kuvira is the first main The Legend of Korra villain to be female (although other villains such as Eska, Ming-Hua, P'Li, and Hou-Ting exist).
  • Kuvira is the first (and only) main antagonist of The Legend of Korra to be introduced in the preceding book and the second in the franchise after Azula. In the previous book, she was an ally of Zaofu under Suyin Beifong's leadership.
  • As seen above, in her debut episode, The Metal Clan, during a dance rehearsal Kuvira is facing off with another female dancer with a haircut and arm bandages similar to Korra's in book 4, this could be a foreshadowing of their final battle in the series finale.

External Links[]

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           Avatar The Last Airbender logo Villains

Fire Nation
Royal Family
Fire Lord Ozai (The Last Airbender & Netflix) | Fire Lord Azulon | Fire Lord Sozin (Netflix) | Prince Zuko (The Last Airbender & Netflix) | Princess Azula (The Last Airbender & Netflix)

Military officers
Admiral Zhao (The Last Airbender & Netflix) | Ukano | War Minister Qin | Bujing (Netflix) | Mung | Lieutenant Jee (Netflix) | Lieutenant Dang | Yon Rha (Netflix) | Offshore Prison Warden | Boiling Rock Warden | Colonel Mongke

Sub-groups
Southern Raiders | Rough Rhinos | New Ozai Society | Yuyan Archers | Royal Procession

Other members
Combustion Man | Ty Lee (Netflix) | Mai (Netflix) | Vachir | Chaejin | Loban | Lo and Li | Circus Trainer | Jailer | Great Sage (Netflix)

Earth Kingdom
Rulers
Earth Queen Hou-Ting | Chin the Conqueror

Dai Li
Long Feng | Dai Li Sergeant

Freedom Fighters
Jet (Netflix)

Sandbenders
Ghashiun

Earth Empire
General Kuvira | Baatar Jr. | Commander Guan | Dr. Sheng

Other members
Liling | Ru | Yaling | Jianzhu | Yun | Mayor Tong | Biyu | Ganbat | June (Netflix) | General Fong | Xin Fu | Yu | Gow | Earthbender Consul

Water Tribes
Northern Water Tribe
Tarrlok | Noatak | Yakone | Chief Unalaq | Eska and Desna | Judge Hotah

Southern Water Tribe
Hama | Varrick | Zhu Li | Gilak | Thod | Lirin | Thod's disciples

Air Nomads
Jesa | Afiko

United Republic of Nations
President Raiko | Wonyong Keum | Jargala Omo | Tahno

Triple Threat Triad
Tokuga | Lightning Bolt Zolt | Shady Shin | Viper | Two-Toed Ping | Zhen

Equalists
Amon | Lieutenant | Hiroshi Sato

Red Lotus
Zaheer | Ghazan | Ming-Hua | P'Li | Aiwei

Daofei
Xu Ping An | Mok | Wai | Jesa | Four Shadows Guan

Spirits
Vaatu | Dark Spirits | Hei Bai | Wan Shi Tong | Koh (Netflix) | Kemurikage | Old Iron | Father Glowworm

Other Groups
Yellow Necks | Saowan Clan | Pirates | Fifth Nation | Agni Kai Triad

Individuals
Tagaka | Lian | Hundun

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