Reloading: The Legend Of Korra Book 4 and Series Review

After three years, four seasons, roughly 50-something episodes, and a long list of bullshit from Nickelodeon holding this show back from true greatness, The Legend of Korra has finally come to a close. I know my review is a little late to the party, but between all the scheduled holiday posts, delays due to my actual job, and delays and technical problems getting a specific podcast complete and online... yeah, I can't think of how this would have gotten up to you guys any faster. That being said... After much delay, here is my review... of Legend of Korra. 

I’ll spend most of my time talking about the fourth season and the finale… but I gotta give a slight retrospective of the whole series. Because, I mean, it’s over. And what a wild ride it was. We jumped 80 years into the future of the Avatar world. We got to see technology evolve and how it clashes with the spirituality the series had normally been so heavy with, but how it also compliments it by the end of the series. We got to see a whole new adventure with all new characters in a familiar, but vastly different world.

The entire theme and purpose of the show goes in a different direction from the original series, Last Airbender. So I won’t waste time comparing the two. They both serve a different purpose and while Airbender is stronger in some areas than Korra (like characterization), Korra was a more intense show with more adult-oriented themes it was trying to establish that only were cut short because, again, it’s primarily a kids show on a kids network run by people with the mind of kids… the stupid ones. Not to mention Korra had far more hurdles to jump through to get to where it was while Airbender had a “beginner’s luck” kind of arrangement going on for it. But I’ll talk about that another time when I feel Nickelodeon deserves a good bashing (because they do). We’re here to talk about one of the greatest shows to be on television in the past five to ten years. Legend of Korra.

(spoilers: the show, the characters, and the finale are spectacular and you should need this review to convince you to go see it. Just go find it online and watch it). I won’t summarize the whole series. If you’ve followed this blog with any regularity, you should have some idea of what it’s about. I didn’t summarize the entire show in my review of Season 3 and I won’t do it here. I’ll just sum up what happened in Season 4. You’re just going to have to deal with it.

Shortly after the events of Season 3, Korra leaves her friends to go back home for recovery… This recovery takes 2-years in narrative time, so the entirety of season 4 is basically after a two year time-skip minus a couple flashbacks. How have things changed? Asami Sato now runs the entire Sato Industries corporation and has saved it from the ruination her father and Varrick left it in after seasons 1 and 2 respectively. Bolin is helping the season antagonist, Kuvira, unite the Earth Kingdom after the anarchy that blew up from season 3. And Mako is the whipping boy of a foppish heir to the Earth Kingdom throne who has no right to rule… All seems right with the world for a bit.

But where’s Korra? During the early moments of the season, she’s struggling both physically and mentally to get back into the role of the Avatar. Physically, there are still remnants of the poison she was attacked with in the previous finale. Mentally, I won’t spoil it here, but let’s just say fear is a driving factor into why she isn’t at full strength for most of the season (thank God for Scarecrow). This creates an interesting hindrance for Korra not seen since season one, as she never feared or ran away from Zaheer or Unalaq. It gives us another look at a fascinating character who undergoes MANY changes throughout the season and ultimately ends up a much stronger character than I ever expected, and possibly more so than her predecessor (which is quite the accomplishment).

Bolin eventually learns that Kuvira is crazy (along with Varrick). Both of these fine young lads are eventually thrown into prison by Kuvira, but make an escape to warn the world about the super-weapon that Kuvira will inevitably use to take over the world beyond the borders of the Earth Kingdom. The two make a dynamic comedy duo that honestly do a lot to save some of the episodes in this season from being boring or outright terrible (looking at you clip-show episode). That isn’t to say this season is bad, but a special kind of magic came of this team up that you don’t see often and the fact many fans would like to see a spin-off from this team should speak for itself.

After we get halfway through the season, the team is finally reunited, but Korra must face the object of her fears (again, no spoilers). Once she does, the stakes get hired when Kuvira initiates her attack on Republic City to finish her conquest of the Earth Kingdom. Incidentally, this also introduces this amazing giant mech (think Pacific Rim) into the picture as Kuvira’s transport for the giant super-weapon. While seemingly ridiculous, it actually is visually impressive and gives the series a proper final-villain to end on. Incidentally, while most Korra finales suffer from some kind of Deus Ex Machina, I never felt that was the case with season four. This allows the ending to flow almost naturally without anything that takes away from the action or the story in any major way. It’s almost like it was planned out to avoid such an issue.

While the stakes are raised, there has been debate that the final-fight here wasn’t as big as the final fight against the Phoenix King in Last Airbender as this only involves the Republic of Nations whereas the Last Airbender finale was for the fate of the world. I disagree. Had Kuvira succeeded, she would have gone after the world, as she had gone mad with power. Second, we’ve spent the entire series (for the most part) with adventures in Republic City and it’s the area that both Aang and Zuko put together many years ago (in the narrative). It was their vision of the future of the world. If anything, the loss of the Republic of Nations would be a devastating blow to the world, to the same degree as what the Phoenix King planned.

Obviously, things end on a happy ending (it’s a kid’s show). There are weddings, ambiguous relationships bloom, and lessons are learned by all parties after all of them have a big moment in the final battle. All-in-all, it reminds me of the end of the Harry Potter series, in that it made sure everyone who ever loved this series had at least one thing in the finale to enjoy before the show ended. Even Mako, a character I still don’t care for, managed to do some impressive stuff to help save the day.

As always, the season felt rushed, but, as always, we know the creators truly had no control over this. The fault here was with Nickelodeon and their inability to support the show. In fact, this season had budget cuts, actively stunting the show’s overall ability to be as capable as Last Airbender. But despite the hurdles the creators faced, they pulled off a show with spectacular art, a well-thought out narrative, interesting characters you can easily become invested in, and a world we all want to see more of someday. I wouldn’t call it a complete success, but doing what they did with the limitations presented is an accomplishment in of itself and they deserve recognition for that at the very least.

Despite the rushed feeling, this is the strongest season thus far and it’s a good feeling to know the series can end strong instead of just piddle about for fifteen years beyond its prime making the same jokes and doing the same basic routine every season (looking at you Simpsons… and I love that show). I don’t need to really explain any more do I? The show is great and, in many ways, stands next to Last Airbender as one of the greatest shows (at least animated shows) on television to date.

But I’m sure some of you have questions like “What are the best episodes of Legend of Korra?” or “What did you think of that homosexual-moment at the end of the finale?” Well, would it surprise you to know I’m already working on separate posts for both of those? That’s right! Majestic Twelve will return soon with an all new “Best Episodes” and “Worst Episodes” of Legend of Korra very soon. And we’ll have a BulletPoints which will tackle both Nickelodeon’s bullshit as well as give some light praise to how Legend of Korra ended and discuss further the thoughts of the creator’s behind it. But those are for future posts coming very soon.

To sum things up, Legend of Korra is a very high quality animated show and probably one of my favorite new shows of the past few years. It pulls off the rare "good spin-off". It continues to tell stories in a world I already loved and expand upon the lore even further. It introduces new characters and concepts to the Avatar world which are mostly good, but still needed a few more episodes to bake and truly shine. Despite all the shortcomings, there are few things I'd recommend more than watching Legend of Korra and enjoying every bit of it. 

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