How about before the trauma, she still got bopped.
I've got no defense for that.
Last episode kind of implied she 'moved on' from the past trauma.
I'm not mad she still has ptsd or something, I'm mad the last episode was like "okay, she's over it', and right before she wins a fight, she freaks out with an issue I thought we just resolved.
That's just how trauma works, man.
People are rarely able to just get over trauma's like this even over the span of a couple years, even if they themselves think that they've moved on.
Like that's probably how best to describe Korra's characterization, she's trying to get past this stuff, and every time she think she has there's another roadblock telling her she hasn't. She's trying to heal, but it's not working, maybe because of the fact that she won't go see her friends (which I get the feeling is intentional).
I mean, it's hard to make overall statements about characterization before the season is over, but that's where I see this going.
Could she have not just avatar state'd airblasted Kurriva, lift the big rock up, see her face in Kurrviva's, and just put the rock down and told her to surrender?
Not when she's freaking out about having put so much time and energy into recovery and still not getting better.
She does get that the fate of the world is here right? She does get that everyone asked her if she was okay and that she could rest and SHE herself (with bei fong) were the people who were putting themselves in the conflict.
That's probably why she was so determined to do things herself.
She's been raised since she was like, 5, knowing she was the avatar and being told she was the most important individual in the whole world, that peace pretty much rested on her shoulders.
And now after a devastating string of injuries and only partial successes, she's grappling with the fact that she can't deal with everything on her own on top of her own personal problems. And she still hasn't accepted that yet, which is probably the main reason, writing-wise, that she got bopped so hard.
Also, I don't get the avatar state thing, the Avatar state is there when the Avatar gets in a pinch and needs emergency power to set right the course of nature, if you're gonna play that kind of game anyways and go against Zaheer's core principles, just DO IT, KORRA. Why play nice when there is a literal standing army in front of you?
She's not playing nice, she's injured and in way over her head because she's a human being.