Okay first, I have never seen a GIF version of this moment so you’re welcome here you go.

Second, this is honestly my favorite moment in the whole series. Yeah, Korrasami is life, and yeah, there’s the moment when she re-directs the spirit beam and I get how all that is great but just...

To me this moment is Korra finally being realistic about the enormity of the task ahead of her, realizing she could die, and still despite all that facing her demons and pulling through. This moment is when the new Korra comes completely into view. This is the setup of character that the re-direction of the spirit beam comes to complete. To me, the motion of her arms indicates sort of a breaking of chains. As though she’s finally breaking past all the chains of her past, and of the trauma that she went through. We know that our lovely girl isn’t completely healed, and likely never will be, from her events with Zaheer. But to me this sort of breaking of the chains says that from this point on, she will never let her past take over all of who she is. From this point on, Korra is living in the present, even if the present is unbearable.

Also can we talk about the animation? We all know that the animation in these last two episodes was excellent, above their normal level of work (which is already fantastic). This moment especially highlights that to me. The way Korra’s hands move before she brings them down to enter the Avatar state, it’s just so visceral and yet delicate. The contrast of her arm motion down and the air moving up really emphasizes the importance of what’s happening. And having the detail work to do hand motions like this is something else entirely. If you look at the way the fingers of the two hands move past each other, apart from being just a difficult hand gesture to draw, the animators added enough frames here to get a sense of the stretch and pull of Korra’s motion.

What’s your favorite moment in LOK?