The Legend of Korra (Spoilers ITT)

Varrick is the best character ever:
"Varrick Industries built this prison, and I had this cell made special. I had a feeling I'd end up here one day"... "Zhu Li's in prison with you?" "Of course! I don't go anywhere without my assistant."
 
actual picture of the SS makorra:

pIAc8fw.jpg
 
Simply...delicious.

Harmonic Convergence? Pfft...better title for that episode: The Legend of Bumi! (and happy Bumi got to see Bum-ji again!)
The Korraverse!!! (You know...giant Avatar Korra a la giant Avatar Aang)
The badass Iroh (the Dragon, not the pretty boy) once again, but then finding out about Zhao turning into a looney...wow!
No more Eska and Bolin (bummer, but Bolin has rebound girl in costar) and no more Mako and Korra (or is it...)
Varrick...what a card.
A brand new line of Avatar, with Korra at the start...
An Amon sighting! :D
Jinora is...a spirit angle?

What's gonna happen now, I wonder? But with Spirits, I give the book a solid A!

(P.S. Not enough Asami! ;-;)
 
Man this series finale was worlds better than the first one, though I guess that's not that hard. Glad these showed up a week early or whatever.
 
Man this series finale was worlds better than the first one, though I guess that's not that hard. Glad these showed up a week early or whatever.

I mean they both have their pros and cons, much like the two different shows do. I'm sure there will be people that say "It's so over the top omg huge spirit monster very lame," but honestly I felt that line up with the Korra show amazingly. Its the 20-30s, and what show about the 20-30s would be complete without King Kong? It really climaxed the juxtaposition of spirituality and humans, which the first season set up and the second season focused around. I also really like how Korra essentially won with her power, not the avatar power, and I think that these past 5 episodes have really delivered the character development that Korra needed. While I don't expect her to be perfect moving into next season, I expect she'll have an increased wisdom and not flounder with the problem of being the avatar, like she has this season. Yeah its like 2 am so elaborating my thoughts is hard as hell but basically I really liked the book finale. I don't quite know where the next one will go because this finale was so epic and huge, but with the world changing so much I'm sure it'll be easy to find problems. I just hope they don't let the plot down, but I'm fully prepared to trust these writers (plz don't hurt me stay true guys ;_;).
 
Korra on the other hand is trying to live up to her own expectations. Like Aang she wasn't supposed to learn she was the avatar at such a young age, and like Aang this has had consequences. I used to think of her with the phrase "I'm the avatar and you gotta deal with", but now I think "all I ever wanted to be was the avatar" is much more appropriate. From Lin Beifong, to anti-benders, to her own tribe, she's finding herself not to be nearly as appreciated as people led her to believe when she was growing up. This is a totally normal existential crisis for what is essentially a child genius, and you can see this at the heart of all of her outbursts and frustrations.

It feels great to be vindicated.

This finale made good on tons of character development, and is full to bursting with literary context. It's everything I ever wanted from Korra. If I didn't know any better, I'd think the series just ended. So if it remains on this level, I think it will easily top ATLA. Fuck all y'all haters.
 
Wow that was fantastic, these last 5 episodes have really stepped it up. VonFiedler pretty much summed up my thoughts though.

P.S. the "what did you say to her?" scene has to be one of the funniest things in the history of anything. Oh and I love Tenzin just left all those other people in the prison, classic prank.
 
that was just fantastic. that episode made me too happy. can't wait for the finale (gonna wait the week for it to be on tv, dont really wanna watch it on my laptop)
 
I thought that finale was good, but I really didn't like it. It didn't seem right that even though Vatu and Rava had bonded with their avatars, that Vatu could come out of Unalaq and pull out Rava. Not to mention that I didn't like the fact that Korra lost her connection to all the past avatars. I felt that was an important part of the Avatar and it seemed like a very lame way for it to happen, especially since Rava ended up being revived.
 
My thoughts on the last episodes of Season 2 (warning: some spoilers ahead):

I see where the animation budget went! The visual and auditory aspects of the last episodes were great, compared to the subpar drawing that composed of the former part of the season. I'm not completely familiar with A:TLA, so I can't say how much sense that kaiju-sized fight made (not much?). However, I can say my thoughts on the storyline.

Compared to the first season, characters had more gaps. I understand that Korra has these faults of hers that were emphasized through the season, and 'be yourself' was the Aesop that applied to not only her but to other characters, but I can't help but think that the writers focus too much on Korra versus other characters that help her get to where she is. Korra is cast into the spotlight as good, and I found it surprising that her announcement of uniting the Water Tribes and keeping the Spirit Portal open was met with complete applause. Surely there would be opponents to both decisions, especially since she had struggled with getting allies against Unalaq in previous episodes? On the other hand, Jinora and Asami get little to no praise for their involvement in the plot. Asami in particular gets kicked around, struggling with her business and in relationships, yet she still selflessly helps with Team Avatar without a thanks in return. I have to wonder if anything had been planned in episode development and was truncated. That result becomes my disappointment in how the writers treat supporting characters.
 
Season 2 finale thoughts in detail, SPOILERS obviously, if you have to wait to see it I wouldn't even be looking in this thread if I were you.

Giant Korra fighting the antichrist worked out way better for this season finale than sudden air bending and energy bending did for the last one. If you're in the minority who thought it was sillier or too over the top, allow me spell it out for you. Light in the Dark would probably work if it was just the culmination of Korra's character development up to this point, but what makes it really genius is how she also needed Tenzin to grow and mature over the season. Korra and Tenzin spent almost the whole season apart, and yet it took both of their separate journeys to get here.

To quote from Charles Dickens Great Expectations
For an hour or more, I remained too stunned to think; and it was not until I began to think, that I began fully to know how wrecked I was, and how the ship in which I had sailed was gone to pieces.

So when her country is falling apart and she can't stop it, and she says "I never wanted a normal childhood. All I ever wanted was to be the avatar," she's not really complaining about how sequestered she was. She's lashing out because "the avatar" of her childhood and "the avatar" of reality aren't meshing, so inside she feels as wrecked as those boats Pip was talking about.

While Korra projects those feelings, Tenzin has them projected onto him by his siblings. He's supposed to be older and wiser, so unlike Korra he doesn't lash out (much), but of course he's feeling effects just as harmful. So when he says "I know I haven't been the best mentor to you, but I realized it's because I've had a lot of spiritual growth to do myself," everything comes full circle.

Just like how Aang's energy bending was the culmination of his character arc, we forgive any deus ex machina because the plot isn't as important as the characters. That's what Book 1 forgot, hell, what a lot of stories these days forget. With this much literary context and in a world of magic and spirituality, the final fight could have been twice as silly and we would have still suspended our disbelief. But how silly was it really? It actually all calls back to the ATLA episode The Crossroads of Destiny. The Guru preached enlightenment by letting go of earthly attachments, and what attachment did Korra have more than her own expectations? When she releases the spirits at the end, something that hadn't been done in ten thousand years, we see that she is now her own avatar, just like when Aang refused to kill even when his past lives told him to do so.

I don't agree that other characters didn't get much focus. That was the major problem with Book 1, but even halfway through Book 2 we saw much needed character development for Mako, Bolin, and Asami. Hell, just in those last four episodes we resolved major character arcs for Bolin and Bumi. I understand why some people would feel that Mako, Asami, and Kya are little left behind at the moment, but that's just a testament to the amazing character development that the others got. It certainly wasn't "all Korra".

If I had one complaint, I'd say it's that Unalaq/Vatu died. I thought in the end he was an amazing villain, and there was so much more they could do with him. Then again, I'm a bit skeptical that he actually is gone. After all, neither Rava or Vatu can truly be destroyed.
 
a lot of the ending felt like an homage to book 1 of last airbender's finale to me. zhao made an appearance, vatunalaq monster was an evil koizilla, and ofc the spirit world ventures. I even thought jinora was gonna give up her life to become the new rava or something a la yue when she dropped out of the sky. it is a shame unala died, he was probably the strongest waterbender we've seen other than maybe amon even before the vatu fusion...

here's hoping next book will have a non-waterbending villain lol
 
What the fuck was that

I mean the characters are brilliant and all but seriously who the hell is writing these story arcs.


Kaiju spirit battle extreme
 
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Mixed feelings on this one, Vonfielder described my interpretation of Tenzin and Korra's arcs to a tee but I felt that things began to take a dip following Korra's enlightenment. After gaining her strength through her spirit and not Ravaa's, Korra proceeds to knock Unalaq/Vattu and goes straight for Ravaa. Personally I was 100% expecting Korra to meet "Ravaa is gone" with "i'm not looking for Ravaa" and kill/save/disconnect Unalaq, breaking the connection the same way he did to her.

With regards to Quanyails, I can definitely see where scenes were cut. Jinora's growth from daughter of Tenzin to "strong spiritual connection" to stronger than (dark) Avatar Spirit is almost nonexistent. I'm not sure about the entirety of Korra's audience, but I would love to see what I assume is the script of a cut arc detailing Jinora's transformation. Also Asami's completely flat character for the last 2-3 episodes really seemed out of place compared to how masterfully Bolin, Tenzin, and Korra's development arcs were ended. Then there's Iroh's 5 seconds of dialog and Varick going off to a war we never see the conclusion of (he's flying at Unalaq right?).

That being said, everything I've mentioned is trivial compared to the mastery of the final arc. Korra and Tenzin's development was executed in an unbelievably precise fashion. Mako underwent significant changes in character that really gave the supporters of "he's such a flat character" a run for their money, Bolin achieved character growth comparable to Season 3 Sokka, and Esna/Bolin speaks for itself.

Insofar as Season 3 is concerned (yes I went there), from the Wan arc on I was seriously concerned over how the series would continue with Season two ending on the most significant event in 1,0000 years. After the complete reorganization of human/spirit interactions my confidence has been restored. Looking forward, the new Era presents an interesting challenge in that life is entering a new phase. If I had to guess, I'd say Season 3 will revolve around a less end-of-the-world plot with Korra trying to maintain balance between both the humans and sprits, as well as addressing lingering concerns about her identity (I am Korra not Ravaa)
 
damn, really enjoyed those last 4 episodes

korra grew the fuck up, made the right damn decision regarding the spirit world (seriously, when watched the flashback abotu Wan I was like "why the fuck is this the right option"), and we got the avatar version of epic mecha battle

lgi book 3
 
So will the dark avatar be reincarnated or was the entire idea I had of a "dark avatar cycle," broken because he was in his own avatar state. Either option I'm cool with but I guess he would be considered avatar state, as he was possessed entirely by Vatu.

If there is a dark cycle would he only be stuck to the water tribes? Meaning that he will just be a kick ass water bender or would he go through a reverse order of the avatar cycle (earth, water, wind, fire)? I don't know just thinkin' out loud.

EDIT:
I also liked the idea that every harmonic convergence the avatar is remade, Wan being the first avatar during harmonic convergence and then Korra being the second. Both are now the firsts.
 
The idea of the dark avatar being reincarnated is pretty much a bust when you consider that they'd just be being born right now. I'd like to see him come back as Unalaq somehow and don't think it's out of the question giving how there's no body, but we'll see.
 
"You named your battleship after your assistant?"

"Yep, they're both cold, heartless, war-machines."

Anyways, everyone else has said what I wanted to. See you guys next year.
 
I'm pretty sure korra destroyed Unalaq's spirit like he was going to do to Jinora, so when Vaatu regenerates he'll just be the same plain jane chaos god he ever was
 
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