The Western Air Temple rendered in 3D using Unreal Engine!

The show villain vs. the actual villain

Kuvira did nothing wrong tbh. She was the only person who had the guts to step up and reunite the Earth Kingdom when it descended into chaos during Korra’s 3-year absence. She literally wanted Suyin to do it and even stepped out of line to let her know but since her NIMBY ass could not care less it left her no other choice than to do the right thing when her country was still suffering from destabilization and we’re supposed to believe Kuvira was doing it out of a selfish drive for control. S4E5 Battle of Zaofu: “You don’t care about equality this is about control! [Just kill her, Korra!] You know it’s the right thing to do!” demands the princess of the richest city of the nation.

“But her re-education camps!” The writers did her so wrong here because how this was executed did not make any sense. There was nothing shown to imply that she saw non-Earth Kingdom citizens as inferior or threats, usually the reasons why regimes like the United States have similar camps. Zaofu had firebending guards, meaning Kuvira grew up and worked with non-earthbenders, and they most likely joined her in reunification. She put her life on the line against the Red Lotus to protect Korra and save her father. If anything carried sense regarding the re-education camps it was her threat to send Bolin to one if he ultimately betrayed the cause of reunification. Seeing that Makorra 2.0 in those re-education camps (plus neoliberOpal’s mention of “slave labor”) was just lazy writing avoiding all nuance of why and how just to paint Kuvira as an irreparable villain.

Republic City is literally an imperialist colony on Earth Kingdom territory but we’re supposed to believe Kuvira wanting to take back control of it for the Earth Kingdom is a bad thing. Republic City rightfully belongs to the people of the Earth Kingdom.

Suyin Beifong was the real villain. She fucked up Lin’s life and face, her bad metalbending kept Korra slightly poisoned and shelved for 3 years, she was too selfish to save the Earth Kingdom despite being the most qualified person to do (literally the leader of the most secure/prosperous/technologically advanced city in the kingdom and a Beifong with name recognition), and she literally attempted to murder her stepdaughter Kuvira and risk destabilizing the Earth Kingdom again to keep her wealth and power while baby-ing Bataar Jr. and blaming Kuvira for his behavior. No wonder everyone (Aiwei, Bataar Jr., Kuvira, etc.) betrayed her.