Man, I dunno. I'm having tough feelings right now. I enjoyed the finale a lot. It gave us things that we needed: Kuvira had a motivation, Asami and her father, various relationships, Wu and the political state of the Earth Kingdom. Korrasami as a bonus, I guess. It gave us these resolutions, and maybe it wasn't the best. It certainly wasn't the best, but given everything it was a damn entertaining finale. I suppose, though, that Korra never was a series that was going to have the depth that ATLA had. But, TLoK was always an action series. I think, there's tons of comparisons to be made, here.
Dragonball > Dragonball Z
Naruto > Naruto Shippuden (or so I hear)
Justice League > Justice League Unlimited
Young Justice > Young Justice Invasion
You get the idea and I'm sure there are other series that compare, but the bottom line is that there are other series that make the jump from an adventure series, or a series focused on character arcs and world building, to a series focused on plot and action. ATLA to TLoK was that jump. I think the overall biggest flaw with TLoK is bringing in a whole new cast of characters and not doing enough with them. Undercooked, half-baked, whatever you want to say. I never had the major problems that everyone else had with the series (Book 1 ending and romance, Unalaq as a villain, Korra not getting her past lives back, the Book 2 finale), and I had always accepted the emphasis on action and plot over world building and character arcs. The characters were always given just enough development to be relevant and maybe create an emotional impact, and never anything more. For better or for worse, it was enough.
Now, I am not going to sit here and criticize Bryan and Mike and say shit like "They're lazy" and all that nonsense, because I am not a showrunner. I don't know how tough that job is or what it entails to be one. I can't criticize a process I have no experience with, and really don't know too much about. Would I do certain things differently? Sure. We all clearly would.
I would have changed "Remembrances" to be about other characters, and not the ones it was about (assuming it was possible). I would have fleshed out Kuvira a little bit, tied Amon to the Red Lotus, explain what the fuck happened at the end of Book 2, and yadadadada. None of that matters though, because it can't be changed
At the end of the day, here's what I know: The creators of this series and those who worked on it were passionate about it, did what they wanted, and are proud and satisfied for it. Props to them. They gave us a solid conclusion to a series that I had a lot of fun watching (and I'm about to do my first marathon of it since my first viewings). I think Korra is a solid, pure action series as far as animation goes. Is it the best, or even my favorite? Fuck no (take me away, Hellsing Ultimate. Take me into your arms and hold me tightly), but I'll be damned if I said it wasn't fun as hell and had some dope ass action sequences along the way.
