| “ | That's what I admire about you, Korra. Your willingness to go to extremes in order to get what you want. It is a quality we both share. | „ |
| ~ Tarrlok |
| “ | Go. Amon can't know anyone spoke with me. Defeat him. Put an end to this sad story. | „ |
| ~ Tarrlok encouraging Korra to stop Amon. |
Tarrlok is the secondary antagonist of Book One: Air in The Legend of Korra, the youngest member of the United Republic Council and the son of the notorious crime lord Yakone. Though he's considered fair-minded and well-liked by the general public, he is really an extremely manipulative politician, serving as a representative for the Northern Water Tribe and a chairman for the council, whose goal was to establish a task force to end all Equalist activity within Republic City.
Tarrlok's real goal was to conquer Republic City through political power and discredit the Avatar in order to prove that he was superior to his father Yakone.
He was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
- While he started as an innocent and kind-hearted child, who wasn't willing to obey his evil father's orders and torture innocent animals, but he eventually subverted these redeeming qualities when he became adult and became more power-hungry and ambitious.
- Once he became the chairman of the Northern Water Tribe and the member of the United Republic Council, he secretly plotted to rise in the ranks of the council and became the Republic's only supreme ruler.
- While he created a special task force, destined to combat and stop Amon and Equalists, but that's not redeeming, he only did this to get rid of Amon and make him not interfere with Tarrlok's plans of taking over the Republic. Also, he later subverted these apparently noble goals by arresting innocent people, who had nothing to do with Equalists, by suspecting them in the relation and aiding Amon and his subordinates.
- He and his men arrested Korra's innocent friends and imprisoned them in order to blackmail Korra into joining Tarrlok's military squad again.
- When Korra came to him and tried to negotiate him into releasing her friends, he only taunted her by playing on her emotions, before attacking her for refusing his orders and insulting him by comparing Tarrlok to Amon.
- He imprisoned Korra in his basement and planned to use her as his hostage when he would leave the Republic, because he realized that his plans of taking over the city failed, and he planned to use her to make anyone not to dare to attack him.
- Him being debended by Amon wasn't played for sympathy, because he himself brought this fate upon his head by arresting innocent people and manipulating everyone around him in order to gain power and usurp the control over the Republic.
Why He Doesn't Stand Out?[]
- Tarrlok fails the heinous standard of the Avatar franchise, as while his personal villainy towards Korra does pass the general baseline, because he never successfully murdered anyone, he still fails the heinous standard towards his brother Amon, his father Yakone and practically all other main villains in the avatar series.
- He has a tragic backstory of being abused by his evil father Yakone and became evil due to his father's cruel and humiliating treatment of him. And he eventually even himself realized that he was only a pawn in his father's plans, because Yakone manipulated and used him as his weapon to get revenge on the Avatar.
- He also genuinely loved and cared about his mother and didn't want to leave her, and that was the reason why he refused to run away from home with Noatak.
- He eventually redeemed himself by showing remorse for his crimes and giving Korra the information to defeat Amon, before eventually killing his brother and himself in the process.
- His death was played for sympathy, having realized he and his brother ultimately carried out their father’s revenge and could never truly find redemption, he somberly takes both of their lives to finally silence Yakone’s legacy.
External Links[]
- Tarrlok on the Avatar Wiki
- Tarrlok on the Villains Wiki
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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Zuko | Ghazan | Tarrlok | Hou-Ting | Baatar Jr. See Also | ||