The Most Underrated Overpowered Villain - Zaheer from Avatar: Legend of Korra

The legend of korra had really good villains but couldn’t care less about Korra. I wanted to see more of them

Can you cover Kreia from KOTOR?

He never struck me as underrated. In fact, he's more fearsome than Ozai

Just saying if zaheer had as much time as others to practice his style of bending he’d have been on top in so many fights

I LOVE ZAHEER

I disagree with the idea that the villains in legend of Korra don't follow their own ideology.
Despite being one himself, Amon genuinely believe that the world would be more equal without benders (his brother say so himself). His ideology is motivated by the abuses he and his family have faced at the hands of his father because of their bloodbending abilities.
Unalaq actually wanted the spirits and humans to live together in harmony. His cause however, was tainted by his fanatic devotion to Vaatu. He thought of himself merely has a tool through witch his master would cleanse the world and make it born anew.
Finally Kuvira saw it as her mission to unifies the earth kingdom and provide a safe environment for her people to live. Only, her arrogance led her to believe that this could only be achieved with her on top ruling with an iron fist. She didn't turn against her ideals, she simply didn't care about what she needed to sacrifice to uphold them.

Anarchy is not the absence of rules. It is the absence of the need for rules. Unfortunately people suck, so government exists.

The main problem Legend of Korra struggles with, is the lack of an overarching plan, that would allow for them to take their time with character arcs, and the one who suffers most from this is Korra herself. Solid concept, shaky execution. And part of that is that the villains go from being right to being monsters who never meant it. If the villains had been true to their belief, that could be super interresting. Korra is a sheltered girl who did not go on her world tour for spiritual awakening, like avatars should. Season 1 deconstructs what it means to defend those in need. Imagine if rather than a big fight for the season finale, the point of the season is that in this changed world, the Avatar's role isn't that of a warrior, and her study of creative thinking and freedom with the last air nomad is what allows her to find a peaceful solution to the problem, perhaps even taking a stand against the city council to make non-benders get proper representation.

Second season explores the role of the avatar as the bridge to the spirit world. Unalog is a good mentor in this. However, i think they missed the trick here too. If he had been genuine in his intent, it would not be difficult for him to still be genuine and do stupid things because a genuinely evil spirit is telling him to, maybe while the corporatist they have all over this show is abusing innocent spirits in turn. This would refocus the avatar's role. Yes, it's mostly fine for humans and spirits to mingle as Korra decides in the finale of this season, but the avatar should remain alert for abuse in this relationship, in both directions. It creates a nuanced view, and we can still have a big boss battle against the evil spirit that was causing the wrongs. Perhaps Unalog could then be a recurring minor character after having been freed from the spirit's dark influence.

The third season explores power structures, and whether the avatar should have the influence they do on the world stage. This is the one season i basically have no notes on.

Season 4 then looks back at season 3 to nuance the answer. No, the avatar shouldn't have all the power Aang had, and no, Monarchs shouldn't get divine reverence, but this world clearly does need power structures, and the avatar to balance them. Reuniting the Earth kingdom is a noble goal, but i would like them to take this season in a more interresting direction than new overtyrant rising in the aftermath of a power vacuum. I think this is where we pull out the civil war, with Kuvera trying to build a new nation starting to either build a republic, while other provinces rally behind the rightful earth king. The earth king meanwhile is hiding in republic city, or perhaps even Kuvera's inner circle cause he does NOT want to be another monarch. In this scenario, we could make the timeskip last until skirmishes break out between the groups over what the right way forward is. Perhaps rumors have started spreading of Kuvera holding the earth king hostage, and Korra being Korra charges in without verifying, causing chaos and turning the new earth nations under kuvera against the avatar, while she returns despite winning the fight empty handed cause the earth king isn't a hostage and refuses to be "rescued" only to be made a puppet king.

That would create a nuanced deconstruction of the avatar that is interresting, moves the world forward, and allows for real character arcs within that framework.

Remove your attachment. Let go of your Earthly tether, and become like the wind.

AMON IS THE STRONGEST VILLAIN OF ALL TIME NO WONDER THAT THE CREATOR HAD TO KILL HIM !!!!

that comment about Zaheer being a man child is just so stupid, as the commentator. What childish thing has Zaheer done? He isn't even showing his temper, a bad ass completely in control of his emotions and thoughts. The dude was on drugs, and I don't want any of that

People seem to forget Zaheer is right that the world doesn't need the avatar. He sees that Korra is basically a walking nuke. You either agree with her or you're the villain.

He shows something that even main protagonist lacked in many shows, is that he aint fucking around man.

Dude eacape jail and half of the world is in shit 😂😂😂 already.

well yes hes a scary dude even with basic airbending
but he also was alr their leader before he got airbending
the leader and worst of their group was not a bender, and so ppl would think hed be the weakest, yet he has always been the strongest and scariest

I legit don’t understand the hate in regards to LOK. Outside of her constantly losing against the main villain on her own and season 2, I enjoyed the series. I lowkey rewatch LOK more often than I do the original🤷🏽‍♂️

Zaheer is interesting because I can just as easily see him on the other side, challenging and questioning authority in a positive way we’re it not for the fact that his extremes left no room for compromise. Zaheer is the only Korra villain whose ideals don’t lead him to obtain power for himself out of ambition. Unfortunately, he’s unable to see the harm that absolute freedom can bring.

In his defense, he intended to continue killing anyone trying to fill that power vacuum. Korra just stopped him.

I mean Ammon still believed in equality he just was willing to go through hypocritical lengths to get it. Him being bender doesn’t mean he still doesn’t stand by his goal. He wasn’t salty at the avatar for his father more like her existence was in the way of his goal.

Have you ever read the poetry of the great airbending guru laghima

have you actually read any work of any actual arnachist to say that the ideology is “inherently false”?

I really like Zaheer as a character, and the fact the he learns to fly by giving up earthly attachments is such a thematic, flavorful concept and I love it.

I think they could have made the series a bit better where all these seasons flowed more. I was think more along the lines unalaq is still the main antagonist. Amon and zaheer are commanders under him in the red lotus and basically I would structure it so korra doesn't get her powers back at the end of book one and she wrestles with her being the first avatar who can't bend but still has to restore balance. Unalaq comes up with a solution by opening the southern portal and she does causing normal people to gain air bending, including herself. So start of book 2 she has airbending but not any other elements. Zaheer takes korra removing her tenzin and pretty much everyone else who protects her out of the south pole to chase him and unalaq takes over. Zaheers ideology in my version is the same and he believes the world is unbalanced and that not everyone has true freedom and the avatar fundamentally creates an unbalanced world so unalaq has brainwashed him into helping him free vaatu, it will create a chaotic world. Korra is only subdued cause she still has to open up the northern portal. With that she discovers the backstory of Wan and once she's rescued at the end of book 2 she realizes she has to visit each lion turtle to regain her bending back. So her and team avatar travel the world doing this while zaheer and his gang take out the earth queen. (Maybe this happens is book 2) Kuvira takes over threatening authoritarianism, so korra has to deal with that along with preparing to invade the south to free her people and stop unalaq. Zaheer takes out korra and unalaq fuses with vaatu and zaheer sees that the whole world is going to be plunged into pain and misery not just chaos. Amon is still around and is about to strip korra of her power and zaheer blasts him with air freeing korra and she fuses with raava again and fights unalaq and defeats him. This was more shaping unalaq to be the main antagonist cuz his was more world ending than either of the other 2 antagonist and I like when antagonist work together just for 1 of them to see the error in their ways and become good. I think that would have made it more cohesive as a narrative instead of having 4 distinct stories with minimal thread between them. The main issue is see with korra, is because aang went on an adventure and had a purpose from start to finish it made the story strong. With korra she's just reactionary. Amon is taking away bending ope gotta stop him. Oh my uncle is actually evil gotta stop him. We saw aang grow but korra I feel only really changed after season 3 due to her trauma.

When it comes to the villains in TLOK, I have to disagree with saying that three of the four of the villain’s motivations were “shitty”. On the contrary there was some change after the fact the villains were defeated. In the beginning of book 2 after Amon was defeated(died), the political system was restructured being more democratic via votes through the general public regardless of bender or nonbender rather than through representatives of the 4 people whom were benders prior as well after the end of book 2, the bridge between the spirit realm and the human realm being opened as what Unoloke wanted after his death. Book 4, Kuvira genuinely wanted to unite all of the Earth Kingdom under one rule, and especially taking back Republic City as it was once an earth kingdom colony with the end of book 4 being mentioned by the earth Kingdom price that he wanted to have the earth kingdom colonies to be democratic while United under one banner. If anything it was more so how radical they went at it that made them a villain in the first place

Feel like the idea of a dark avatar was cool tbh, I’m not saying season 2 was great but I’ll watch it any day it don’t deserve so much hate

My favorite fact about Zaheer is that he only is able to fly after P'li's death.
The fact that his love for her was the only thing that kept him attached to the world is very poetic.

The antagonist, is what make this show being good, because I hate Korra, and I wanted to see more of the villains

I think their could have been better execution on the idea which I think was the main point of the villains which was.

You can’t really trust someone who comes off self righteous cause ultimately people do things for their own sake. And the Avatar is supposed to be some Jesus type figure that can be the only one th at can be selfless cause spirit world connection even tho every Avatar besides Aang, Wan, and Roku was a dickhead

Imagine if Korra freed Zaheer and got him to fight kuvira for her

ima be real, this man is not underrated. probably the most talked about villian in legend of korra

Love andrew tate

What’s especially interesting about Zaheer is that he’s not even that OP; he’s arguably the weakest main villain in the series. Tenzin was straight up beating him in a 1v1 and in her avatar state Korra had him running. He just knows how to maneuver and manipulate the situation to put himself in winning situations as much as possible

zaheer was the most feared out of all of them despite being relatively the weakest. and he was an anarchist. fav character in the show by a mile and went back to watch the show just to see this man once more.

Zaheer carries.

Amon wasn't right. Benders were very much the lesser of non benders in Republic City. Sure there were criminal bender gangs but every person topping the socioeconomic status was a non bender. Sato industries non benders Varrick non bender.

I never understood how he was so good at air bending, just by reading books. It takes people years to learn how to bend. While practicing.

Zaheer was always my favorite of the LoK antagonists. Amon had the most potential but Zaheer had the most complete arc. LoK had the chance to surpass TLA if it fully committed to its premise but then pussied out in the last minute.

My favorie part of Zaheer's story is that he's the "living" embodiment of how broken airbending is. This dude only knows airbending from an academic and theoretical level. The moment he has access, he's steamrolling fools like Aang himself. He's only really on the backfoot twice: When he runs into Tenzin - a true master airbender (and he only walks away from that fight because the rest of the Red Lotus jumped in) and Korra in full AVATAR SMASH mode.

My second favorite part is in Season 4, when Korra meets him in prison. Rather than be Hannibal Lecter-y and gloat about how the Avatar needs him after all, he simply says "I fucked up and helping you is the least I can do to help fix things."

I think if Amon or Kuvira were the only villains that was a hypocrite that would have worked much better for the series as a whole. There exists people who lie about their beliefs and ideologies simply to trick people into putting them in power. Just look at the former president and the MAGA movement. I apologize for bringing IRL politics into this, but it really is one of the best comparisons. He claimed he wanted to help the American people and bring us back to the "good ole days," but his way of doing that just so happened to look like him and his family personally enriching themselves and deregulating everything. Promised infrastructure and healthcare reform and never delivered. Was upset he couldn't silence his critics forcefully. Tried to overthrow an election by whipping his followers into a frenzy when it was clear he lost. In regards to Amon we can look a Kristin Sinema. She claimed to be a left wing politician, was part of the Green Party, but the second she got elected she did everything opposite of her claimed beliefs when voting on bills. Amon manipulated the disenfranchised non-benders into thinking he was one of them and that he could solve all their problems if they followed him only to later reveal in a fit of anger he had lied the whole time about who he really was. Kristin and Amon are very similar, pretending to be something they're not to manipulate people into giving them power over the masses. These villains exist IRL, so either real villains are poorly written or "poorly written," villains are not well received, Perhaps both.

"What do I like about Zaheer?" He's voiced by Henry Rollins. Nuff said

I totally agree

Not an anarchist, but to formulate your opinion based off the google search “what are the negatives of anarchy” is pretty funny, congratulations for using the head on your shoulders to not be able to come up with any of these criticisms yourself😭

most controversial thing about this is the way you pronounce zaheer

Kuvira’s goals were not legitimate, it was just revisionist ultranationalism. Zaheer’s ideology is not philosophically beaten by Korra, he is just punched away. Meaning, Korra actually lost here, the problem of unjust hierarchy was not solved.

Super mage hard core avatar fan here and he’s my favorite villain form korra (low bar I know but still)

The Toguro brothers from Yu Yu Hakusho are overpowered and terrifying villains.

Best villain in any series to me. I have a different bar for villains, a lot of people would find better written characters than Zaheer. But I'm a calm and spiritual person, Zaheer just hits different and I love it.

Zaheer was almost at Ozai threat level, but he still lacks in the actual power column.