Legend of Korra Book 4: Balance |OT| A Feast of Crows

Status
Not open for further replies.
Jeremy Zuckerman - The last musical cue in the ‘Legend of Korra’. https://soundcloud.com/jeremy-zuckerman/the-legend-of-korra
Beautiful.

Hold up.

HOLD UP.

It just occurred to me.

You know those so-called "labor camps" that were alluded too?


Why the fuck weren't we shown any of them? The conditions? The psychological toll it took. Were the soldiers supporting it or just following orders?

Don't forget they were also rounding up the non Earth Kingdom citizens to stick in these camps.
 
Korra finale was way better than I expected. Can't say I was a fan though of how Kuvira basically just gave up at the end. Or rather I should say I thought it was fucking lame. She was a badass but they pretty much butchered her character arc throughout the season and the little bit at the end wasn't nearly enough to make up for it. Wu giving up the monarchy struck me more of a modern line of thought that says Monarchy = bad rather than something I could realistically expect to hear come out of his mouth. I had other nitpicks too (I'll probably think of even more over the next few hours/days) but otherwise yeah it was pretty good :)

Also Team Korrasami wins! FLAWLESS VICTORY! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

lol, Kuvira. "I give up because you're, like, way stronger than me and stuff. Time to renege on my indomitable will whereupon I went to lengths such as mass destruction and fostering inhuman conditions."

Yep. Pretty fucking awful :/ Worst part of the finale.

The best thing about the ending is that ulitimatly the conflict was stopped by a actual conversation. Korra been practicing Talk-no-jutsu .

LOL I was thinking the exact same thing :P

I think it more "let's throw a bone to this voice part of the fan base."

They held hands
They looked at each other.

I just don't see anything "official" about it.

Nah son. It's clear as day what they were going for.The only reason they didn't go further was probably network execs and fears of backlash
 
Wow, what a crappy ending.

Season 1 was meh.
Season 2 was terrible.
Season 3 was okay.
Season 4 was meh.

I should have followed my gut and stopped watching in Season 2.
 
I'm sated by the ending, but not quite satisfied.

They threw a lot of last minute exposition out there for Kuvira's motivations and I'm not super pleased with that.

In all likelihood it probably has to once again do with Nick jerking them around on their budget (remember the clips episode?)

I'm happy for Varrick and Zhuli at least.


That said I'm overall fairly confused as for the motivation for Kuvira to engage team avatar. The giant mech is walking about town... to try and reach airbender island and handle the surrender from Raiko originally... right? And then everything got sidetracked as Kuvira went to keep fighting or something....

I get that she didn't want to destroy the city, just conquer it but to be so easily sidetracked seemed silly to me.

And at the end I was kind of hoping/expecting the spirit vines to choke-a-bitch and get revenge on Kuvira ala Admiral Zhao but that didn't happen. Nor did Kuvira go down fighting to the end.


As for Korrasami, eh. I was never particularly invested in the romance aspect of LoK between the primary characters if only because the love triangle dynamic and drama with Mako was just so groan worthy at times.
 
Well, that was an average ending, not bad, but not amazing either. The Korrasami thing was the highlight, though I almost had a heart attack at the Makorra fakeout(don't play with my fragile heart like that!), thank God it didn't happen.

Talking about Korrasami and Mako, I know a guy whose two ex-girlfriends ended up getting together, he wasn't even mad, he just laughed at the whole thing and then moved on. I think Mako will do the same, I think lol.
 
Kuvira giving up at the very end didn't bother me. Even with her mech mostly destroyed and her being injured, she still tried to get away and kill Korra. Once she saw that Korra could take that blast head on she knew there was nothing else she could do.
 
IDK why but I feel like this show could have been sightly better had they had more episodes. Every season felt so rushed (well I guess S3 had some good pacing for just 13 episodes).
 
That was so very disappointing. the slightest of 'yay's for Korrasami (c'mon, the hand holding, the meaningful look/pose at the end..... come on)

But goddamn that entire season was a drag. I could not be more let down. That finale was boring. The giant mech in general was boring. Hell, every single mech suit bored me. I hated every fight scene with them... there was nothing interesting about them and they just made all the bad guys mooks compared to them used to being given little bits of personality at the very least.

My biggest gripe, and this can't be overstated enough, was how the bending degraded over the series. The entire fucking thing had turned into 'Elemental punch" by the end.

Honestly season 4 might be as bad as season 2 when it comes to just completely fumbling any chance at a decent plot... the pacing was equally bad in a reverse way where it was just... so slow. At least Season 2 had Beginnings.
 
I forgot to ask, what the fuck happened to Kai and his VA? He barely showed up this season, and when he showed up towards the end he never even talked.
 
oh my word. That was amazing. Best finale in Avatar history, best individual episodes in the franchise.

I mean, I don't have a bad thing to say. I'm not going to call it perfect...but man. Man.

Better than the finale for season 3 of Korra or season 3 or 2 of the original? Nah son, nah.
 
I expected more of a fight between Korra and Kuvira. Maybe some energy bending too. Instead Korra talks her into surrendering. Yeah, didn't expect that at all. Kuvira's character pretty much got destroyed right there.

I really wanted Mako to die. He didn't really do much this season. Wished he used Lightning every time to solve a problem. Just do it bro, don't even think about it. You fry those metal benders easy.
Enjoyed Bolin's character this season a lot more.
Zhu Li became more likeable for me.
Seeing Toph in action for a little while wasn't bad. Not sure why she likes staying in the swamp so much.

Can't Opal earth, metal and air bend? I never seen her metal bend.......or my memory is hazy.
Yeah, totally forgot about Kai too haha. I guess the spot light wasn't on him much this season.

Makorra was too predictable.
Korrasami at the end. I'm fine with it. Those two grew a lot closer together.

If they ended at season 3. It would have been great.
Season 4 wasn't bad, but it wasn't good as season 3. That's for sure.
 
Decent battle scenes with ridiculous amounts of destruction, then people started talking and you realise how silly the characterisation has been on this show.

Korrasami would've been fine in a vacuum of this season, but with Korra having already been in a heterosexual relationship and with no foreshadowing of her having ANY romantic interest in girls to suddenly throw it out there is ridiculous. Furthermore the fact that both relationships were with people in Team Avatar who also had relationships with each other makes the group feel very incestuous. The entire show has treated the entire realm of human romantic relationships very badly and this is just more evidence of it.

However despite my qualms at that it doesn't hold a candle to Kuveira's surrender. That was pure unadulterated dogshit. What's this Freudian bullshit about her parents doing here? What about the concentration camps? What about trying to kill Bataar? Where has that cold, ruthless determination to win? I mean WTFFFFFF? We should've just talked to Hitler about his mommy problems and that would've solved everything. Stalin's father's alcholism and abuse was clearly the root of his issues, and a 2 minute chat would've cleared that all up instantly. I mean seriously

WTF?
 
I've never really liked the justification for tyranny in stories like these.

Korrasami would've been fine in a vacuum of this season, but with Korra having already been in a heterosexual relationship and with no foreshadowing of her having ANY romantic interest in girls to suddenly throw it out there is ridiculous.
I thought it being assumed between the two of them was kinda dumb. If you're going to do it then develop it a bit better.
 
I enjoyed it, but I really don't think we needed a "threat" this season and certainly not one that was wrapped up in a neat little bow. Korra's recovery and some character building was all that was needed really. The fact that Kuvera wasn't destroyed etc. was a nice touch , and even though her giving up like that was, as above, a little too neat I think it was better than Korra just punching the problem away. The finale scenes speak for themselves. Saw it coming, knew they wouldn't have the nerve to go all the way with it but it's obvious what's being implied there.


I'm still mulling over how I feel about the series as a whole, but as it stands Season 3 is still by far the best the show ever got and had it ended there it would've been fantastic. Season 4 was kind of boring overall with too much filler (and I blame this on the writers, since there was no need for Wu etc.) but as I've said in the past it was Season 2 but GOOD. Dull at worst, but consistently entertaining and a tad moving at best as opposed to boring and annoying where everyone was at each other's throats.

Final season rankings:
3,
4,
1,
2

Glad to have caught the show in its initial run and I'm sad that it's over now. We probably won't see the Avatar franchise in animated form again for a long time, if ever.
 
Episode 12 was a action masterclass, surpasses The Drill, one of ATLA best epsiodes

Episode 13 was a great resolution to the season and series, tying together all the story strands that had been woven neatly in earlier episodes

I see the usual complainers are at it but

BEST! SHOW! EVA!
 
I enjoyed the finale and i liked the implied relationship(didnt see it coming but i like that they attempted it.) bit at the end though i wish it was exlored a bit more in the season. I wish they didnt spend so much time fighting the mech suit and instead pace out the ending a bit better. id say 7/10
 
Hmm after how Nick was running the show to the ground, the series finale was a lot more satisfying than I expected. And I'm happy Asami got paired up with someone that wasn't Mako so yup, wasn't a bad way to end things.
 
I loved the finale. Definitely wasn't as impactful as ATLA but it was good. Korrasami was out of left field for me. I honestly didn't expect it. Heard a lot about it but just assumed shippers being shippers. But yea I love the Avatar universe so this show was a godsend. As usual the music was beautiful too. I'm hoping Jeremy Zuckerman can get that released so I can buy all of it.
 
Can't Opal earth, metal and air bend? I never seen her metal bend.......or my memory is hazy.

Opal didn't have any bending before Harmonic Convergence. She then gained the ability to air bend. Not every son or daughter of a bender is a bender (just like Bumi in the first two seasons).

---------------------------

Anyway, I found the ending quite disappointing overall. Kuvira turned out to be a wet blanket and Korra was too restrained. When they got inside the mech Korra should have gone into the Avatar state and then wrecked shit up in the cockpit. No holding back; no trying to talk Kuvira down; she should have blasted in there and beaten the ever living shit out of Kuvira, and then presented her unconscious body to her army and ordered them to stand down and disperse. We know she can take Kuvira in the Avatar State, from when they battled and she briefly had the upper hand outside of Zaofu. And then in the spirit forest Kuvira suddenly has a change of heart (bearing in mind this is almost immediately after trying to murder her fiancé in order to kill Team Avatar) because Korra talks her down?! She should have at the very least taken away Kuvira's bending away, because she was insane and too dangerous and many times directly tried to murder Korra and her friends. Yeah... no. Not buying any of that. Plus, there was no resolution as to the 'Dark Korra' plotline that was the very first thing that happened to her this season. I appreciate maybe it was manifested from her PTSD and lack of belief in herself, but at the very least she should have had a confrontation with the dark spirit, even if she faced it down in the Spirit World and said something cheesy like "I'm not afraid of you any more!" I guess that plotline was resolved when Zaheer (
god bless him
) showed her how to get back to the Spirit World, but again there was no conclusion; it was just kind of left hanging.

As usual, the Beifongs were my favourite characters. Su is so goddamn awesome and I'd have loved her to have been the main character. I'd gladly see a series based around Su and Lin; I really like the way the twins sons act as one and Bolin could be in there as well as Opal's hubby/fiancé. And then Toph could show up periodically to offer her kind of tough love advice, but without really getting involved in the action. Operation Beifong was easily my favourite episode and I think that fight between Su and Kuvira is one of my favourite battles in all of ATLA/TLOK. It's short, but so sweet.

Overall I'd rate the seasons in order of quality:

#1 - Book 3: Change
#2 - Book 1: Air
#3 - Book 4: Balance
#4 - Book 2: Spirits

All ATLA seasons come above these, easily. I'd need to re-watch all of that before ranking those in order.
 
I'm sad it's over, but it was a beautiful story, despite some disappointements (hey second season! I'm lookin' at ya!). Also,
Korrasami? YES!
 
Wow, they actually did it. Regardless of whether you think it was forced or not (I don't, the last two seasons set it up a lot), it is a step forward that it'd happen on a kid's show. Maybe not a giant leap, but still a step.

Overall the finale was alright I guess, though a bit underwhelming like all of Book 4. Having too many characters really bloats the show.

Fire = Earth
Change
Water
Air
Balance=Spirits

EDIT: Oh and the spirit portal thing at least made sense; Vaatu said it was him that created the other one back in Beginnings, makes sense the weapon could do it too.
 
The two episodes were actually pretty good. The end fight was satisfying with every having their important part in the fight with no way for Korra or anyone to do it alone. Responding by adjusting their own weaponry was also nice to see, as was Hiroshis appearance. Smart to get him out of jail.
Everything that didn't work the previous episodes suddenly worked again. Bolins humor was great, every use of "the thing" was sweet and generally Varricks proposal and handling of Zhu Li was great.
Only bad thing about the episodes themselves where the Mecha cgi. The scene were the normal suits shut don looked awful.

Also: Korrasami <3
I mean, seriously, the implications are at least very heavy. Nice that they ended on this.

Enjoyed the finale, the whole show not so much.
 
I really like that Wu stepped down and began the path towards an Earth Confederation.


The finale was pretty good. The Kuvira surrendering part seems a bit forced, bit I'd rank the seasons as follows overall:

3
4
2
1


2 beats out 1 only because of Wan.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom