Nickelodeon's animated series The Legend of Korra continued the story first told in Avatar: the Last Airbender, and in each of its four seasons, avatar Korra faced a new archvillain and risked everything to defeat them. First, she battled Amon and his Equalist army for control of Republic City, then she stopped her own uncle, Unalaq, from bringing 10,000 years of darkness to the world with Vaatu.
Season 3 brought the most terrifying villain yet: the anarchist Zaheer. A member of the secretive Red Lotus, Zaheer aims to dissolve all borders and slay all kings and queens, and allow the "natural order" to reign supreme. Korra nearly lost her life against him, but she ultimately prevailed. Now, what are ten cool facts that make Zaheer who he is?
10 He's Like An Airbender In Spirit
At first, Zaheer was a non-bender, and for years he operated for the Red Lotus as an ordinary man. We never saw those days on screen, but we know from word of mouth that Zaheer waws tricky and dangerous at the time. And now he's an airbender, too.
But with or without airbending, Zaheer's ideas of natural order and total anarchic freedom aren't too different from Air Nomad thought, since people under this paradigm are not constrained by borders or kingdoms or laws. They just move freely, like the wind. Whether that's a good idea is a different question entirely.
9 He's Patient And Deliberate
This is something that sets Zaheer apart from the likes of Zuko or Admiral Zhao or other hot-headed villains. By contrast, Zaheer knows what he must do, but he's willing to plan far into the future and wait to take action.
For example, he shaved his head and joined the newly reborn Air Nation under a false name, so he could gather intel about Guru Laghima, playing nice with everyone else there the entire time. Also, he took his time assassinating the Earth Queen, and he operated on her behalf before deciding to turn on her.
8 Diverse Skillset
Like Suyin Beifong, Zaheer was never content to stay in one place or settle down for the same 9-5 job for the next forty years. Instead, he traveled all over the world on behalf of the Red Lotus (and possibly for other reasons), learning much on the way.
This allowed Zaheer to learn many different martial arts and bending styles (in a sense), and he combined many different fighting styles into his own to make it truly unique. Like the real-life Bruce Lee, he's not constrained by a singular style.
7 He's An Analog To Bane
In 2012, the third Christopher Nolan Batman movie hit theaters, audiences were treated to the villain Bane, who reclaimed Gotham for the common people and threw it into anarchy, including capturing all the police and releasing prisoners everywhere.
Zaheer did something like this when he committed regicide, and he brought chaos to Ba Sing Se in a similar fashion, including jailbreaks. Zaheer even went on the public radio to announce the new "order" in Ba Sing Se, and Bolin and Mako were caught in the middle of it.
6 He And Azula Got Close To Ending The Avatar Cycle
Zaheer is the second known person in the Avatar universe to achieve certain things, and one of them is the attempt to assassinate the avatar. Years ago, princess Azula shot lightning into Aang's back whole he was in the very avatar state, and it nearly killed him. His death would have ended the avatar cycle, too.
Much later, Zaheer attempted something similar, except he had been planning this, including building a cave base for the job. He chained up Korra and fed her a mercury-based poison to weaken her and force the avatar state to appear, and he and his minions tried to assassinate her.
5 He Fights Dirty
At first, a viewer might think that Zaheer is brutal but honorable, but he soon proves just how ruthless he can be, much like Azula. Not only did he kill the Earth Queen and nearly kill Korra too, but he deceived Korra's party at the air temple that he had captured.
There, Zaheer offered a deal: Korra turns herself over, and in exchange, all the captured airbenders go free. But it was not to be: once Korra was captured, the airbender prisoners were waterbending fakes, and things definitely took a turn for the worse after that.
4 He Can Forgive
This is another way that, despite his brutality, Zaheer is like an airbender monk: he is quick to forgive. He is not one to take things personally, but instead, he focuses on the mission and his core beliefs, and he will ally with (or fight) whomever he must.
Korra stood against his will in season 3, but she and the airbenders defeated and captured him. Later in season 4, some three years later, Zaheer bore no ill will toward Korra whatsoever, and even helped her enter the spirit world.
3 He Is Loyal To Friends
Zaheer is a team player, and he formed an elite squad consisting of himself, Ghazan (pictured at right), Ming-Hua, and his lover, P'Li. They are like a foil to team avatar, and together, they can topple any nation or kingdom.
Although an anarchist who wants to dissolve borders and destroy all laws, Zaheer believes in loyalty and friendship, and he grieves for each lost comrade on the field of battle. He was devastated when P'Li lost her life for the cause, but her death severed Zaheer's last tether to the earth. Thus, he unlocked flight.
2 His Name's Meanings
Many of the characters in The Legend of Korra were designed with real-life references and allusions in mind, and that includes Zaheer; most of all, his name. The word "zahir" comes from Arabic, Turkish, Swahili, and similar languages, and refers to "apparent meaning," as a counterpart to batin: "inner meaning."
This is similar to what Zaheer told the White Lotus guards just before he broke out of his prison, and we should mention that a similar word, "zehir," is Turkish and Urdu for "poison." You guessed it: this matches Zaheer's use of mercury poison on Korra.
1 He Has An Affinity For Spirits
While Zaheer is not a true master of the way of spirits like Uncle Iroh is, he's quite comfortable in the spirit world and knows how to make the most of it. He met Korra there as a neutral meeting ground, and in season 4, he gladly led Korra there as a guide, as we mentioned earlier.
Zaheer doesn't really voice his love of spirits, but we can infer it, and he is knowledgeable enough about the spirit world to push Aiwei into the fog prison spirit and leave him there for all time. We bet Zaheer likes the lack of royalty or nations among the spirits. They just live free, period.