Kuvira, also known as The Great Uniter, is a fictional character in the Nickelodeon animated television series The Legend of Korra, a sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

Kuvira was created with similar characteristics to the portrayal of protagonist Korra in prior seasons to highlight the changes she had made over the course of the series.

[6] In the fourth season, set three years later, Kuvira has since been tasked with restoring order to the land following the chaos brought about by the Earth Queen's death, following Suyin's refusal to do so.

While she genuinely wishes to help her people, Kuvira is shown or implied to have committed a number of tyrannical actions for the sake of her goal: she refuses to help impoverished states unless they provide her with large amounts of natural resources by signing over control of the region to her, uses her citizens for labor, imprisons dissenters in re-education camps and conscripts people into her armed forces.

That night, Suyin and her sons Wei and Wing unsuccessfully attempt to capture Kuvira, who subsequently demands Zaofu's unconditional surrender.

With the escape of her prisoners and the completion of her weapon, Kuvira intends to conquer the United Republic, believing the land to have been stolen from the Earth Kingdom by Aang and Zuko following the Hundred Year War.

She fires the still functional cannon at Korra, but the weapon starts drawing on the energy in the nearby spirit vines and goes out of control, throwing Kuvira off.

[8] In The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire, set three months after Kuvira's defeat and the dissolution of the Earth Empire, after pleading not guilty to her charges, Kuvira learns from Korra that her former subordinate Commander Guan never surrendered his forces and apparently plans to disrupt the upcoming democratic elections of state governors as part of King Wu's efforts to reform the Earth Kingdom.

Later, after Korra and Wu leave to convince Toph Beifong to stand as a candidate for governor after learning Guan plans to partake in the election himself, having Earth Empire members do the same in other states in order to effectively restore the Earth Empire, Guan launches an attack on Korra's docked airship, capturing Kuvira alongside Asami, Mako, and Bolin.

After witnessing Guan brainwash everyone but her into serving him with the same machine he plans to use to rig the elections, Kuvira manages to escape, contacting Suyin, informing her of what had happened and convincing her to help.

After battling Guan's forces and rescuing Asami at the cost of losing King Wu, Kuvira reveals that to break her brainwashing, she will need the help of her former fiancée Baatar Jr.

[10] Leading up to the premiere of the fourth season, Konietzko did not specify her background though acknowledged the possibilities relating to it, stating in a September 26, 2014 post, "We don't have any kind of confirmation on what Kuvira's backstory is, other than what Suyin has told us, but there are a lot of really cool theories.

"[11] For her redesign for the fourth season, Kuvira initially had a long braid that extended to her legs and an asymmetrical cape, a design that Konietzko favored, though it was abandoned for contributing to difficulty in animating.

Caroline Lee commented that Kuvira was a rarity in children cartoons for being a woman that was not sexualized, had a difficult backstory and did not become successful due in part to familial background, seeing her instead as someone who "is simply one of the most skilled metal benders of her time and dominant in every sphere of her life, personal and political.

Max Nicholson of IGN felt that the writers of the series did "a pretty good job of relating" Kuvira's motives rationally and commended her scene with Korra in "Enemy at the Gates" since it was the first time they sized each other up, also stating that the meeting conveyed how similar they were.

Club wrote that the audience saw her out of the public eye during the initial fight with Korra for the first time, but it was "hard to hate her after the work the writers have done establishing her motivations.