| “ | Republic City is mine, Avatar. I'll be back one day to claim it! | „ |
| ~ Yakone |
Yakone is a major antagonist in The Legend of Korra, serving as the posthumous overarching antagonist of Book One: Air.
He used to be the ruler of Republic City's criminal empire and was infamous for terrorizing citizens through the act of bloodbending, an act that was illegalized by Katara because of how immoral it was. He would eventually lose his bending powers after Avatar Aang takes them away from him when he tried to escape upon being sentenced to prison and kill Aang.
However, he would eventually escape prison with the assistance of a former gang where he would then undergo surgery and take on a new identity before moving into a village of waterbenders where he would start a family with a woman there, getting two sons whom they would name Noatak and Tarrlok, with Yakone then harshly training them through waterbending before revealing who he really is and what he intends on doing with them (using them as tools to claim Republic City and kill Aang as revenge), with him verbally abusing them while training them to bloodbend, eventually becoming responsible for Noatak taking on a new identity as Amon and trying to get rid of bending everywhere, in turn making Yakone indirectly responsible for a majority of the events in Season 1.
He was voiced by Clancy Brown, who also played Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption, Uka Uka in the Crash Bandicoot video games, President Luthor in Justice League, Mr. Freeze in The Batman, Long Feng in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Gunmar in Tales of Arcadia.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- He terrorized Republic City by using the art of bloodbending on dozens of people, practically having tortured them, which involves the victims' bodies being painfully twisted.
- After being to sentenced to jail, he proceeds to bloodbend everyone in the courtroom.
- He bloodbends Toph into releasing him from his cuffs before bloodbending everyone else in the room to unconsciousness and escaping.
- When Aang foils his escape attempt by bringing down the horse carriage, Yakone attempts to kill him by trying to bloodbend him to snap his neck only for Aang to enter the Avatar state, subdue him with earthbending, and then taking away his bloodbending powers for good before taking him to prison.
- After escaping from jail and going through surgery to go under a new identity, he starts a family with a waterbending woman in a village.
- When they have 2 children, whom they would name Noatak and Tarrlok that inherited his waterbending skills, Yakone viciously trains his sons.
- He verbally abuses Tarrlok while training the both of them, angrily yelling at him whenever he messes up and threatening to leave him out in the cold all night if he doesn't shape up. When Noatak defends Tarrlok by saying that he just needs time, Yakone merely reprimands him by telling him not to talk back to him.
- When they have 2 children, whom they would name Noatak and Tarrlok that inherited his waterbending skills, Yakone viciously trains his sons.
- After revealing to Noatak and Tarrlok while on a "hunting trip" far from home who he really is and that they can bloodbend, he intends to teach them to master the art of bloodbending and then use them to claim Republic City and destroy the avatar. Coldly claiming that those are their only purposes in life.
- In order to train them, Yakone has them bloodbend animals like a yak they came across (though only Noatak does this) and several wolves they would come across though Tarrlok would only very briefly bloodbend them before stopping due to how bad he feels about the act while Noatak would bloodbend them even longer.
- When Tarrlok objects against the former telling Noatak to stop bloodbending the yak, Yakone merely shuts him up by telling him to toughen up before commending Noatak for bloodbending it, with Yakone displaying sadistic glee in the latter act.
- Attempts to force the two brothers to bloodbend each other, only managing to succeed with Noatak who does it without hesitation, and when Tarrlok refuses to do it, Yakone attempts to reprimand him starting off by calling him a disgrace and a weakling.
- Noatak steps in and proceeds to bloodbend Yakone, calling him out for for using his sons as tools of revenge before trying to run away with Tarrlok though Tarrlook would refuse because of being concerned about their mother prompting Noatak to insult him by saying their father was right about him being weak before running away into the current storm on his own.
- His actions would leave a huge impact as he is responsible for shaping Noatak into the cold and cruel criminal he would become later under the alias of Amon with him being the reason as to why he would come to hate benders as a whole and attempt to take away bending from everyone and get rid of the culture of bending for good, making him indirectly responsible for a majority of the events in season 1.
What Prevents Him From Being Pure Evil?[]
- He relies on offscreen villainy to pass the Heinous Standards of Avatar as his act of bloodbending dozens of citizens in Republic City to maintain his grip was not displayed onscreen with no impact on the story and doesn't have enough onscreen effects to disqualify it from being labeled as offscreen villainy, leaving him to fail to Jet who attempted to get an entire village killed with a flood with lower resources, Hama who bloodbent many Fire Nation citizens and attempted to make them rot like she did with lower resources, and his own son, Amon, who attempted cultural genocide on benders everywhere by stripping them of their bending abilities which leaves mental effects comparable to rape.
- However, the number of citizens he bloodbent is at least specified to be dozens and there is at least some onscreen evidence to show he committed this crime with there being witnesses, his victims, testifying against him for the crime in court.
- He is shown to at least have some genuine care for Noatak, as he was searching for him in the storm with Tarrlok when he ran away and coming home depressed when he is unable to find him and stopped training Tarrlok after the event.
- This can be considered a bit of a sympathetic moment for him, given that Tarrlok noted that Yakone died a sad man when he could not find Noatak. However, he was still willing to verbally abuse him while training him to master bloodbending and was willing to use him as a tool for his plot to claim Republic City and kill Avatar Aang, which is what prompted Noatak to run away in the first place.
- He loves his wife as in all the interactions he has with her, he showed genuine affection for her, and the feeling was mutual.
Trivia[]
- He is the only Near Pure Evil from The Legend of Korra. Additionally, he has no interaction with Korra.
- Clancy Brown has also voiced another Near Pure Evil from the original animated series, that being Long Feng.
External Links[]
- Yakone on the Villains Wiki
- Yakone on the Hate Sink Wiki
- Yakone on the Avatar Wiki
[]
 Near Pure Evils
| ||
|
Animated Shows The Legend of Korra Live-Action Show Novels Comic Books See Also | ||