That's how I feel pretty much verbatim. I think Book 3 is the strongest season of Korra, and I think is up there with ATLA, quite frankly, though for different reasons.
Long post incoming. I promised thoughts on Book 3, and here they are!
I felt Book 3's cast of villains were rock solid. I also like how the season had recognisable themes that were returned to continually (for example, individualism vs collectivism), which is something both Book 1 and Book 2 struggled with. The Red Lotus are basically extreme libertarian terrorists, which is an interesting kind of villain to have for a young adult show as they're not just a cardboard cutout villain like Ozai and Unalaq were (and Kuvira seems to be heading in the direction of), and not a fucking psychopathic nutter with an obsession to destroy the Avatar like Amon was.
Since I'm on the topic of villains. In regards to Zaheer's plan, I think like Amon's it was doomed to failure from the beginning. And like Amon, he's a good villain because he was a threat to Korra personally, rather than someone the Avatar has to stop from causing a lot of destruction and suffering to others (as Ozai and Unalaq were). The reason I think Zaheer's plan would've failed is because he was just creating a power vacuum that some fascist like Kuvira would fill. His idea of decentralised libertarian utopia is a fallacy as someone with a lot of power would march in with an army and just take everything over. If it wasn't Kuvira, it would've been the bloodthirsty bandits.
But what I liked about Zaheer is that you could tell he genuinely believed his worldview was a valid one and that without Korra and without established governments the world would be hunky dory, and this delusion was also what made him do some extremely fucked up shit like murder the Earth Queen and attempt to end the Avatar cycle.
Moving on from villains, I like where the world's lore has gone. Book 3 retroactively made Book 2's nonsense more palatable, especially since we've seen the return of the airbenders. That one plot device has given many of the key characters -- Tenzin, the airbender kids, and Korra herself -- some great new arcs and room for strong character development and it's thanks to the groundwork laid down in the previous season. I've definitely made my peace with Book 2. I don't think it's good, but it's watchable at least. And ultimately it gets you from A to B, and onto the great season that is Book 3.
At the moment, besides the fact that the season is chugging along at its own leisurely pace, I feel Book 4 would be better if they were showing two episodes a week. Ep 1 leads well into Ep 2, and together they feel complete. Same with Ep 3 and Ep 4. Ep 5 has also felt rather barebones, but I think I'll like it more once I've seen Ep 6 and watched them together.
That said, I have no specific complaints about Book 4, right now. I'm still waiting for it to kick into gear, and thusfar it's been pretty inoffensive, I suppose. More meandering than bad, at any rate. I hope shit kicks off on Friday because we're pretty much half-way through at this point.
On a more personal note, Azula, I've been reading this thread on and off and I did catch some of your posts. I was sad I couldn't come into the thread to send you my best wishes until now, so I'm glad you're here so I can. I hope you're well, dude.
