Legend of Korra, “When Extremes Meet”

Every time I saw Tarlokk’s hair braids, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something familiar about them.  Then I did my homework.  Not sure if this is deliberate or purely coincidental (my money’s on the latter), but Tarlokk’s hair appears to resemble the trigram ☵ 坎 kǎn if you assume the third ‘bead’ in the middle braid is the same size as the other two. 

The symbol comes from the Yijing (sometimes spelled “I Ching”), one of the most important books in Chinese philosophy and culture.  I wish I could go into a huge amount of detail, but believe me when I say I’m far from an expert; but you can read all about it here!  It does mention the trigram has a “dangerous” attribute - but like I said, I can’t speak much to the meaning as I’m definitely not an expert.

Legend of Korra, “When Extremes Meet”

The characters above the hood of the police car read rather unsurprisingly as follows:

共和城警隊 gònghéchéngjǐngduì

• 共和城 gònghéchéng as I’ve discussed before simply reads “Republic City.”
• 警隊 jǐngduì differs from the usual police jargon we see in the shows.  警 jǐng is an abbreviation for “police” (警察 jǐngchá)  and 隊 duì (trad.; simp. 队) means “squadron,” “team,” or “group.”