on DVD.
Well, it's been quite the journey since I first purchased the complete series boxset of this show at the end of March. I've managed to binge-watch it to completion within a few weeks (considering that when I started it I'd wanted to pace myself and stretch it out but I wasn't able to restrain myself and went through it so quickly tells you just how much I enjoyed it. The fact that they're only approximately 21-minute-length episodes probably helped too, as it would've taken quite a deal longer to binge-watch the series had they been 40-or-so-minute-length). When I bought this show, I'd heard *of* it ages ago but knew very little about it (I hadn't even realised it was set in the same universe as A:TLA until
after I started watching that show on TV here). With my enjoyment of A:TLA having been lessened with Season 2, I was motivated to finally check out TLoK - as I
still wanted to watch a show set in that universe...but one that was Toph-free (while this show wasn't
entirely free of her, at least she wasn't prominently featured in the first three seasons). I watched the trailer for the first season of this show on YouTube just to make sure it didn't look too bad, and that was enough for me to go buy it. And I'm certainly glad that I did, as I've been watching a few shows lately (some on DVD, some recorded off the TV) that I've basically wound up hate-watching and it was so nice to finally get back to watching a show I actually thoroughly
enjoyed.
Unlike others, I didn't really see Season 1 as being that 'rough around the edges'. I personally took a liking to it pretty much straight off the bat, and while I've probably forgotten a bit of that first season already (due to my shoddy memory, *not* because it was 'forgettable'), I still believe it remains my favourite in the four seasons of this show. Part of the reason for that, I think, is because Korra seemed so 'innocent' back in that season. She hadn't yet been through so much torment (like she would be in the later seasons) and was still able to have
fun/there was a certain 'lightness' about her. Also, while Tenzin's annoying kids were present, at least it didn't feel like there was so *much* of them back then. The first season focused on the four main characters I actually liked the most in the show - Korra, Mako, Bolin & Asami - and that's probably why I enjoyed it the most, as the later seasons tended to focus more on other supporting characters to the point where it almost felt like it wasn't even Korra's show anymore. However, even when this show was at its so-called "worst" (ie. Season 2), I still enjoyed it more than post-Season 1 of A:TLA. One thing I've forgotten to mention in any of my previous reviews for the show - and since this is my last opportunity to do so I might as well do it now - is that I've always liked the 'intro' for this series, which features the four last Avatars doing their bending thing while the words 'Earth', 'Fire', 'Air', 'Water' are said during the voiceover (though personally I was always thinking to myself "Earth! Fire! Vind! Water! Heart!" whenever seeing this intro at the beginning of every episode thanks to growing up watching
Captain Planet). I think we must've gotten a shortened version of it at the start of the actual episodes, as it certainly didn't run as long/show as many maneuvers from each Avatar as this does...
Anyway, without further ado...
Episode 1It begins by showing an old-timey video/movie with the radio voice guy talking about Republic City as a tourist attraction and all the cool stuff there, he mentions Korra’s been gone for THREE years and how everyone misses her (I was shocked to hear so much time had passed) and poor Mako’s stuck playing bodyguard to the Earth Kingdom's fop of a Prince named Wu, who it turns out is the (not-so-dearly) departed Earth Queen’s great-nephew...and he’s hilariously hated by Asami, Mako, and pretty much most people. Though this was an example of a character who was *intentionally* annoying, but I still didn't completely hate him as at least he was annoying in an
entertaining sort of way (his impression of his great aunt’s death was amusing to me, as he worried about assassination attempts). Mako’s SO over him, but protects him by getting him into his car before he’s hit with pies by his haters...though one got Wu's shirt, which he thinks is blood and freaks out about, then when Mako says it's strawberry pie, Wu freaks out even
more - after having tasted it - because he reckons he's allergic to strawberries, before Mako points out he's actually allergic to
beestings and then Wu finally calms down, claiming he always gets those two things mixed up. I'm glad they paired up these two, as Mako's continued annoyance/exasperation with Wu provides quite a bit of humour and keeps Mako fun instead of boring (not that I ever really had a problem with Mako's character like apparently others did. He *could've* been annoying...but I never found him to be so). At one point Mako thinks he’ll finally be rid of Wu, even grabbing Lin's shoulders in desperation (which no
sane person would EVER do, but clearly Wu's driven him to insanity - I can relate, as I feel that way every day thanks to various things/people in my life) and it seems even
she can sympathise with Mako's situation. Nevertheless, she informs him he's stuck with Wu.
Meanwhile, Bolin’s working for Kuvira (that one Head of Security woman for the metal-benders at the end of last season voiced by Robin Williams’ daughter), who is a military dictator type of bad where she
seems okay at first, but basically forces people to pledge allegiance to her (she's earned the title 'the Great Uniter') and has banners and it’s all very Daenerys-at-the-end-of-GoT. She fights awesomely, though, keeping totally calm/cool/collected as she dodges earth-bending attacks from stone-surfing roving bandits and hurls her metal bands back at them, efficiently taking care of them in short order. One thing I noticed with Asami, Mako and Bolin was that the animators put some effort into making them look slightly 'older'/more 'matured' - I think the difference in the hair (especially with the brothers) helped with that. Bolin and Opal (daughter of Lin's sister, Suyin) seem at odds with each other since he's working for Kuvira, which Opal doesn't approve of (and apparently Suyin has
more kids than just Opal - not that I remember any of them from last season - including three grown-up sons, the oldest being an annoying bespectacled dude who we learn is
engaged to Kuvira...so you can imagine how well
that news goes over. The other two sons I barely even noted). Opal and Kai (who's still kinda annoying, his voice is a lot older-sounding and the only thing I like about his character is his now grown-up flying bison, Lefty) have matching superhero-like 'wingsuits' that help them glide, and they're pretty much doing the superhero thing in the absence of Korra as the Avatar.
They're attacked by bandits in the air who cut Kai’s suit and he plummets to the ground, but Opal goes after him to...just fly beside him? Not sure what good she was gonna be, as I doubt she could carry him and it's
Lefty who saves them both by swooping underneath them and landing them safely on the ground. They lost food to the bandits which was intended to help people in desperate need of it and an old guy who'd been resisting giving into Kuvira's demands to join her ends up having to do so. Thanks, kids! Speaking of kids, I was entertained by Naga greeting Tenzin's kids (who are also all older-looking now) by galloping over to them and immediately turning over onto her back so she could get a belly-scratch (I imagine Pabu was with Naga, but I didn't notice him). Meelo (who's still supremely annoying) thinks because he’s 'older' now, he's got a shot with Korra - who Asami was looking forward to seeing, but Korra's dad informs them all that his daughter left six months ago and it's clear nobody knows where she is, but then when the TITLE CHARACTER OF THE SHOW is *finally* featured at the
very end of this episode, we see she's now got short hair and is in an earth-bending cage fight getting her arse handed to her because she's still suffering from PTSD (even three years later) after her fight with the Big Bad of last season. After her losing this fight, a dude thinks he recognises her, saying she looks like the Avatar and asks what happened to that chick and she replies that she ‘wouldn’t know’.
Episode 2This was the episode that explained what Korra got up to in those three years that had passed since the ending of last season and the beginning of this one. It was definitely the most psychological episode, as it delved into her PTSD (which is quite the heavy subject to address in a 'kids cartoon series'). Via flashbacks, we see her in her wheelchair and she's going away (to stay with her parents for a while or something, I think), Bolin's excited about them being pen pals and then clarifies to Korra she shouldn't take his excitement about her leaving the wrong way (which Mako points is kinda hard to take any other sort of way), Asami offers to go with Korra (hands on her shoulders) and while she's putting on a brave act, we can tell she's not really doing well at all (some friends they are - they should've been able to tell!). Korra goes to Old Katara, who's supposed to help heal her, where she struggles to even get her big toe to move (
Kill Bill moment!) and stumbles when walking holding onto railings. The whole time I was watching Naga’s reactions to Korra that showed she felt her emotions (personally, I would’ve appreciated a bit
more interaction between them). Understandably, Korra's frustrated, she gets aggro at Old Katara but apologises, and then is tasked with walking the whole way over to Naga where she finally makes it to her friend who is there waiting to support her and they hug - I wanted more of THIS...
Korra gets stronger, Tenzin comes to visit, and she wants to show how much she’s progressed by fighting guys like when we first saw her as an adult near the start of the show's first episode, decked out in in armour and a helmet, but she keeps seeing visions of her 'Dark Avatar' self with the glowing eyes that she had when fighting the Big Bad in the last season final (which she also keeps flashing back to) and consequently loses this fight too. Tenzin attempts to be reassuring and she says if she hears one more person tell her to be patient she’ll water-smack him (which amused me), so then he tries to say that
without using those words - something like not worrying about the future - which really doesn't help at all. Meanwhile, in the 'present', her current short-haired self has been seeing a tiny fluffy white dog that she’s been following, it barks at Dark Avatar Korra and chases it away seemingly. Back in the past, Korra left Old Katara, Tenzin AND NAGA (who howls as she departs), going all loner. Poor Naga, always left behind by her owner. She goes to a fishmonger guy who wants to take her photo (he already has one of Aang's older self), and as he's taking it, thieves are stealing from some old woman and the guy tells Korra to go get ‘em but her PTSD leads to her getting beaten again (she can’t catch a break!). Fishmonger dude and the old woman are
not impressed with this Avatar.
My memory of the order of events is a bit jumbled, but at one point we see the cage fight from the end of the previous episode, but this time it's from
Korra's POV and it shows us that she did *not* 'throw the fight' (like apparently some people thought she did, according to the episode commentary) and what really happened was she once again saw her Dark Avatar self (this time in place of her fighting opponent) and
that's why she lost the fight. Korra talks to a spirit, then when travelling through different landscapes like she's in LotR, she sees a mirage in the desert, then the tiny dog she's chasing after is revealed to be the yellow spirit she talked to, and they're in the swamp and she fights her Dark Avatar self but gets pulled down by the chain (which she had attached to her in last season's final) into a puddle that looks like the metallic liquid she was poisoned with and wakes up in a Yoda-like hovel and it’s Old Woman Toph (UGH!) greeting 'Twinkle Toes’ as she knew Korra's past self Aang. I knew Toph was going to turn up eventually, but still...UGH! I thought this episode did a good job of tackling a complicated subject in a way kids could understand and I applaud them for not having Korra just get over it quickly like other shows would've done. In the commentary for the episode, the makers of the show say how the network was worried that with all the jumping around in time, the episode would be confusing, but then they remark how thanks to shows like
Lost, people are able to follow this sort of storytelling and I was amused when the actress who voices Korra interjected with "Yeah, and
Lost made
perfect sense." and you could tell it was slightly sarcastic, then she did this playful sort of tune thing, going "
Yah dah-dah-dah" when the others were about to say something regarding
Lost 'making perfect sense'. I just appreciated the little dig at that show. On the whole, this was a really good/complex episode and is another example of how I felt this series was slightly more 'mature' than A:TLA.
Episode 3Poncy Prince of the Earth Kingdom is going on about his coronation and Mako (as usual when it comes to this guy) is NOT enthused with his "Yaaaay...", then at one point when Prince Wu says the Avatar world's version of "If a bear poops in the woods..." (except it's 'platypus-bear' - because every animal in the Avatar universe apparently had sex with
every other animal, thus creating all manner of unnatural hybrids. I never even would've realised that Appa from A:TLA was a bison crossed with a
manatee had I not heard it on one of the commentaries for this show). Wu has big plans for his coronation, but Kuvira takes it over and basically wins over the people who already didn’t think much of Wu (as well as others) with her speech, metal-bending the medallion she was given - whereas Wu got zip/nada and even his room/suite is now hers as she booted him out of it. She talks Bolin into buying that what she’s doing is
good, him and Mako fight over who they're with (ie. Bolin's with Kuvira and Mako's with Wu) - all of which Wu hears through the door (he takes offense particularly to Bolin insulting his 'junior suite'). Kurvira (who has tasked Varrick with experimenting on the 'spirit vines') and Suyin are not getting on, yadda yadda. Meanwhile, on Dagobah, Old Fart Toph just abuses Korra all episode, hitting her with mud, shoving her face away, tossing her around (clearly, Toph hasn’t matured AT ALL - she's
still a bitch). She informs Korra there are metal bits still in her body from the poisoning, Korra wants them out, but she won’t ‘relax’ according to Toph who refuses to do it, but it's because poor Korra still has PTSD. Old Woman Bitchface says over and over that Korra's "the worst Avatar ever", and all episode, whenever she opened her mouth to say anything, all I could think was "Shut up, Toph!". I HATED that they were giving a voice to the Korra haters out there by having them essentially speak
through Toph's character with the nasty stuff she said about Korra. WORST. YODA. EVER. This was a mostly blah episode for me (no Asami? Boo! But Tenzin's kids? Double boo!). The one real bright spot was seeing the weirdo twins again (albeit very briefly) and Eska commenting on Bolin being with Kuvira by jumping to the conclusion they were
together together with, "Well done, she seems very threatening.", then when Bolin clarifies she's his boss and *not* his g/f, Eska responds with, "Boss, girlfriend. Same thing." and the funny kept coming with the revelation that the twins had booked in the same room and Eska stated that it was no mistake...Desna (her brother) slept in the tub.
Episode 4UGH, two of my LEAST favourite things were the focus of this episode - Tenzin’s kids and Toph. Meelo (despite having grown physically) is *still* an ungrateful little shit when his mum makes them food including his favourite thing and he complains about the face on it being smudged despite just having said they’d hunt as they go off in search of Korra. He’s also evidently grown up with some sexist mentality regarding girls (how'd his parents not smack that shit outta him?). Back at Dagobah, Old Fart Toph’s doing jackshit and Korra wants to do stuff, so her bitch of a mentor sends her off to pick big slimy mushrooms for dinner but it’s a ruse and Korra sees flashes of her enemies - Amon, her uncle and that demon thing (it’s like Luke facing Vader in the cave from ESB). Back with the turds, Meelo meets a girl (whose voice I thought sounded a wee bit younger than the character looked) he calls 'the love of his life' minutes after meeting and one sis basically chases her away by getting them back on track to their mission. Not sure when exactly in the episode it happened, but at one point stupid Meelo threw their food away in the river (his whole 'live off the land' mentality), Ikki was understandably pissed, while Jinora was just meditating and couldn’t concentrate because of Ikki’s incessant questioning/bothering her/impatience and told her to go off with the spirit animals. She meets a squirrel thing after randomly blasting air (in anger over her siblings - whom she mocks, doing impressions of them like Meelo farting at inappropriate times and Jinora’s being 'above it all') at the ground. She chases the squirrel, thinking it a friend, but she’s grabbed by two guards who tie her to a chair (though we see in the background, as the two of them argue, that she’s got her arms free enough to scratch her nose or whatever - so clearly this is another case of inept guards). One’s friendlier than the other and sympathises with Ikki's middle child syndrome (also giving her a macaroon, which he seems obsessed with). Toph intentionally sent Korra to experience those visons, saying she’s holding onto past villains and therefore can’t hope to face future ones before telling Korra she's going to have to extract the metal poison bits
herself (thanks a LOT, beeyotch!). Ikki's sis and bro knock the nice guy guards out (which was a situation Ikki totally had under control until they turned up), she leaves them with Meelo’s treats their mum made (the one obsessed with macaroons mumbles about them while knocked out) and *finally* the shits make some actual
progress when Jinora senses Korra who's touching a big special tree and reconnects with the spirits/spirit world or whatever, getting glowing eyes. They reunite with her (the flying bison they're riding is apparently named Pepper - who was earlier pulled down into the swamp by vines, which is how they wound up there) and, miracle of miracles, Toph actually says "Well done, Korra." when she manages to extract the remaining poison from herself and even allows Korra to HUG HER before she and the kids fly off.
Episode 5Poor Korra, stuck on a flying bison with Tenzin's annoying kids where Meelo wants her to fight Kuvira (I think he’s even
more annoying now than when he was younger...and has stupid eyebrows). Making matters worse is there's hardly even any Korra in this episode. Varrick's testing a 'spirit vine' sample, he realises that using it for a weapon is dangerous and wants no part of it, but Kuvira threatens him (same with Bolin, who sides with her over Opal and then realises Kuvira’s nuts too). I was amused by Varrick's observational humour when he questioned where a hatch came from that Bolin poked his head through from above (this was after Varrick had been freaking out about hearing voices when in fact it was just Bolin and he'd been telling Zhu Li not to breathe - which she was having none of and he thought this meant a death sentence for both of them) and they escape. Varrick and Bolin together are entertaining, but they’re captured by Kuvira (after a mecha/robot fight with them - which made decent use of 3D animation), Zhu Li begs Kuvira to let her back on her side and is basically all "Varrick never appreciated me and I thought he was so brilliant!", he's betrayed by his assistant and Zhu Li says to Kuvira's guard to "Do the thing." (which seems to be Varrick's catchphrase, as he was constantly telling her that, expecting her to always know what he meant despite the lack of specifics in that phrase) and Varrick's all "NOT THE THING!" as he gets dragged away. Korra tried to smooth things over between Suyin and Kuvira but was too late in speaking to Suyin. Meanwhile, Asami visits her dad in prison and is still pissed at him but eventually goes back and plays a game of Pai Sho with him.
Episode 6Where’s Mako? Where’s Lin? Never thought I’d miss Lin. Suyin kinda sucks. Korra goes to talk down Kuvira (with Jinora and Opal backing her up). Kuvira's army is ready to fight Suyin's, but she claims to not want to sacrifice their lives so she’s taking Korra on one-on-one. Korra has a lot of pent-up rage to work out but still isn't 100% and reckons she'll only use the 'Avatar State' as a last resort, she barely manages to hold up against Kuvira's attacks and when she
does eventually go all 'Avatar State', she sees Kuvira as her Dark Avatar self and gets beaten. Adding insult to injury, the
kids have to save her (including Meelo, who was waiting for some action) - how humiliating for Korra. Meanwhile, Varrick is supposed to finish work on the spirit vine weapon for Kuvira and he gets Bolin as an assistant (in Zhu Li's absence. She's now assistant to bespectacled son of Suyin), tricking the guards into thinking they might get their hands blown off if they assist, hence Bolin getting the job (though he doesn't want his hands blown off either, understandably). Naturally, Varrick just expects Bolin to know exactly what "Do the thing" means without any context, and Bolin's no Zhu Li, as he hasn't the foggiest (I was amused when Varrick said at one point that in the future people would say someone 'Varricked' themselves because someone 'Zhu Li’d' him or something like that). He bluffs his way to getting the guards and bespectacled son of Suyin to leave them by saying he's rigged a bomb basically, and it's questioned why he has a trigger if he already set a timer, but he reckons he's just covering all his bases. Once they get onto a different train carriage, Varrick tells Bolin to "Do the thing" (which in this case means unhook the carriages - which Bolin doesn't get and Varrick is mad at him, as he reckons that was an 'easy one'). The bad guys' carriage goes away, turns out Varrick
wasn't bluffing, but Bolin finds them a way out by opening another handy hatch at the bottom of the train and earth-bending a tunnel for them to escape through after saying he hates Varrick. Once they escape the explosion, Varrick kisses Bolin (on the forehead) since he FINALLY got what "Do the thing" meant this time around.
Episode 7It's the episode where Korra has a reunion with everyone she hasn't seen for ages - the BEST one of which is easily Korra's reuniting with Naga (who looks up at Korra on the flying bison as she's waving and starts immediately wagging after Pabu alerts her to it). The way Naga runs over and picks up Korra off the ground with her nuzzling and the two of them hug was a big 'aww'-worthy moment (just
look at the happy expression on Naga's face! The animators do a good job of capturing doggy expressions accurately with Naga). My only disappointment comes from the fact that we don't get
nearly enough Korra and Naga moments in the show. She's certainly not treated as lovingly by the writers as Appa was on A:TLA, that's for sure (which is a shame, as a polar bear dog is AWESOME and shouldn't be ignored/under-used).
The others reunions were 'meh' by comparison. The next best one was Korra and Asami, who compliments Korra’s new short hair (causing her to blush). Upon reuniting with Mako, Korra meets Wu who’s his usual blah self and wants Korra to go into the 'Avatar State' just to see her eyes glow (which immediately turns her off him). Asami's not happy with Mako, thinking it’d just be the three of them together again at a restaurant but he couldn’t ditch Wu and says he’s going to be on his best behavior (this is *before* he asked Korra that intrusive thing he did). Wu has to go to the bathroom and wants Mako to go along with, who tells him to go by himself and Korra asks if he
always goes with him. I was amused by Mako attempting to make it sound less weird by explaining how he just stands in the general vicinity...and then promptly gave up trying to defend it. Somewhere during this scene Asami got mad at Korra for questioning her trusting her dad again. Meanwhile, a guy in the bathroom offers to spritz Wu with some stuff, but it's knockout gas. Outside, Mako wonders what’s taking so long, goes to check and they know Wu’s been taken (his "The one time I
don't watch him pee and THIS is what happens!" had to be the funniest line of the episode). Korra notices Wu being kidnapped (he half-wakes up in amongst laundry in the back of a van, saying as much).
Korra and Mako argue over whose fault losing Wu is, she sees a train via a vision thingy (that thing she does where she touches the ground and can connect with surroundings thanks to her spirit connection or whatever) and they fight guys on the train, she air-spheres them
off the train and Asami says it's like old times...except for getting on each other’s nerves (while Mako says that’s like 'old times' for him and Korra). There's an amusing part where the three of them hug and Wu tries to join in, but Korra shoves his face away. They take Wu to Mako's grandma, who faints upon meeting him (and Wu’s happy about being there too). Other things of note were when Mako and Asami find out Korra met Old Woman Toph, they ask what she was like and Korra aptly describes her as a "cranky, more miserable version of Lin.” and Mako asks, “Is that even possible?”, to which Korra replies, “You'd be surprised.” (oh, you were FAR too kind with your description of her, Korra). Also, Mako found out that Korra only wrote to Asami when she was gone and not to him/Bolin (tells ya somethin'). Elsewhere, after their escape, Bolin has to let Varrick ride on his back. Eventually they swap and Varrick is hopeless (meanwhile, apparently Zhu Li once carried Varrick on her back for 20 miles in one day with a sprained ankle). They get caught in a trap by folks escaped from Kuvira’s "re-education camp" who don’t trust them until they come back to save them from some bad guys and they all wind up together on a boat. The episode ends with Kuvira harvesting vines from Dagobah. I honestly wasn't really into the parts of the episode that weren't the Korra/Mako/Asami stuff. And because it can't be stated enough...
Episode 8So it's come to this...a CLIP SHOW. I saw how the episode was so low-rated on the IMDB page for it, but this is one of those very rare instances where a 'clip show' was actually done WELL (or as well as one could expect given that it *is* a clip show). Apparently the stupid network cut the show's budget, and they were given an ultimatum - either let go crewmembers or make a clip show. The showrunners, thankfully, went with the lesser of two evils and did a clip show instead of firing people (and screw you, network, for even
making them choose between those two things!). What makes this clip show *work* is it provides enough 'new' material to keep things entertaining despite seeing old footage. The first of three segments in the episode starts with Wu training (his “I’m not like you, Mako. I wasn’t raised by a pack of cops in the woods." was pretty funny) and Mako telling the story of his love life with Korra/Asami - which might SOUND 'boring', but what keeps it fun is the running commentary throughout with Mako trying to tell his story and others (including Wu and even Mako's grandma) interjecting/pointing out how dodgy some of his choices were regarding his relationships with the two ladies. It's pretty funny stuff. The middle segment is not very funny, but that's because it's dealing with Korra's continued PTSD and it was nice to have both Asami and Tenzin there to reassure/be supportive of Korra (especially after old bitchy Toph was the
opposite of encouraging/supportive). The last segment is the most creative of the three, as it's Varrick telling his totally made-up story of Bolin framed as a NukTuk movie of sorts where even old footage of giant blue Korra is used to fill in as Bolin's heroic self in this total figment of Varrick's imagination. The best part of it is a conference call of sorts between the previous seasons' Big Bads with them shunning the B&W OTT villain version of Korra's uncle - who I didn't even
get was *supposed* to be Korra's uncle back during Season 2, as I just thought he was a villain made up by Varrick who vaguely resembled the bad guy from the
Flash Gordon movie). Also, Varrick referring to the demon guy as "the meanest, scariest kite that ever flew!" was rather hilarious given that's kinda what it resembled. All in all, this clip show was probably one of the 'better' ones I've seen (most of the time I skip them, but in this case it was worth sitting through and I commend the makers of it for doing the best they could given their circumstances. Things could've been a LOT worse).
Episode 9The Loser guy from last season who became an unwilling air-bender (that Korra & co attempted to recruit) is doing a tour guide-type of gig, and not really into it, and one annoyingly overeager tourist wants photos or whatever when vines attack and take them all (thanks, vines!). Korra's making stones pop up out of the ground and Naga’s pouncing on them, Opal's not happy that no one's helping her family who got captured by Kuvira (shut up, Opal), there's a meeting between the higher-ups including the President and Korra's not happy that Wu was invited while she
wasn't, then Varrick and Bolin turn up, nearly getting arrested (since they were previously on Kuvira's side) but explain what Kuvira’s been doing and Korra knows it’s got to do with the spirit vines. Opal's still mad no one wants to rescue her fam (shut up, Opal), so it’s left up to her and Lin while Bolin tries winning her over by having Pabu trick her with a note that said both his legs were broken when in reality he just wanted to have a picnic with her and she’s pissed (after she'd come running to him in a panicked state). By the end of the episode she says the one thing he could do to win her back is go with her and Lin to rescue her family - which he enthusiastically agrees to (despite the fact that, if he were captured, he'd no doubt be tortured to death by Kuvira for turning traitor against her - I don't think this even occurred to him or Opal). Varrick and Asami are working together again, though she's still pissed he betrayed her and sold her/his company or whatever, and gets even
more pissed at him constantly saying ‘allegedly’ (which I can totally understand, as I too get pissed whenever I hear on the News the word 'allegedly' used regularly when in fact there's no 'allegedly' about it - it HAPPENED. It's *really* annoying how overused that word is). Korra, who's still not over what the Big Bad of last season did to her, decides to go visit him in prison to help her learn where Jinora and others got taken to in the spirit world by the vines. He unexpectedly helps Korra get to the spirit world where she finds the kidnapped people and frees them. It was interesting that this bad guy who'd tormented her so actually was the one to help her reconnect with her 'spirit self' or whatever. I guess in a funny way he did always kind of respect her (even when he was kicking her arse). It was a good conclusion to their story, as this is (I think) the last time we see him.
Episode 10This was a Toph-heavy episode and therefore I didn’t really enjoy it (whereas I'm sure everyone else LOVED it). Things were off to a bad start with Bolin’s fanboying over Toph and saying she’s his ‘hero’ WAY too much.
While she’s her typical insulting self towards him. All I could think during this scene of them meeting was "Why does Opal’s flying bison have mucus problems?", as it was regularly secreting green snot. Toph insults it too, as well as Appa, saying she thought
he smelled bad (BITCH!), while Opal says basically that the bison chooses you and she’s tried changing hers but had no luck (you don't deserve your snotty bison, Opal!). There's a campfire talk between the Beifongs which I couldn't care less about, but at least Lin is *almost* as mad at Toph as I am, but nevertheless their family issues bore me. Toph was obviously a sucky mum (WHO'DA THUNK IT?). Although we were probably meant to be wondering why Kuvira's spirit vine weapon wasn't working properly all episode, it was obvious that Zhu Li was sabotaging it. Toph doesn’t seem to care when her family goes to save Zhu Li (after she’s caught, following her betrayal of Kuvira, and stuck in an otherwise deserted town which is going to be the first test subject of the weapon once it's fixed). Bolin goes and Opal follows on her bison. There's a pretty decent fight between Kuvira and Suyin (I liked seeing her do the opposite of the move we saw last season where she removed her armour and used it as a weapon against an enemy whereas this time she takes metal from her surroundings and turns it into armour for herself). Toph coming to save the day elicited a giant *eyeroll* from me. Opal forgives Bolin for everything after Zhu Li says his heart was in the right place even if he sided with the enemy. Meanwhile, Korra’s asking the spirits to help but they think she’s like her uncle and demon guy, so they disappear (fuck you too, spirits!). Once again, sadly, it barely felt like she was even
in the episode (what a waste of the title character of this show. It's even worse that time which
should've been spent on her was instead spent on the character I HATE THE MOST in the whole Avatar universe). With Asami's help, Varrick is gonna build flying mecha-suits (designed after hummingbirds) to combat Kuvira's forces. Unfortunately, her fully-armed and operational
Battle Station spirit vine weapon is ready to attack them, according to Zhu Li...in two weeks (which really doesn't sound
that urgent. Nevertheless, Wu's all about organising an evacuation). The best part is that Toph returns to her swamp and this is (as far as I can remember) the last we see of her. HALLELUJAH!
Episode 11Bolin presents Zhu Li to Varrick who’s ‘motivating’ his workers to make mecha-suits to fight Kuvira's forces. She tells him that all the stuff she said about him when they separated wasn’t true and he means a lot to her, he seems like he’s going to say something caring, then he just acts like his usual unappreciative self and she’s HAD IT with being his assistant, telling him off/wanting to be considered his equal, before storming off. Varrick's clueless as to what prompted this outburst and Bolin slaps his own forehead at this. Korra takes Tenzin & co on a mission, thankfully leaving Meelo behind because he farts and they need to be *quiet*. They capture Suyin’s bespectacled son who knows Korra’s empty threatening him with her glowing 'Avatar State' eyes, but she eventually figures out keeping him separated from Kuvira (who he just wants to go off with and marry) is the way to get to him. Kuvira (who's one week early with her attack - WHAT A SHOCK!) has created a giant walking mecha-suit that has a cannon mounted on its arm which blasts the shit out of things. Suyin’s son thinks he's talked down Kuvira from attacking, but OF COURSE she’s gonna sacrifice him and so she blasts shit out of the place they’re all at. Viewing this from a distance, Lin says she’s going to check for survivors...and, curiously, doesn’t seem
that concerned her family members may be dead.
Episode 12Miraculously, everyone’s saved by Bolin holding up a massive slab of concrete which should've flattened them all like pancakes with his earth-bending, but there's a funny moment with him remarking on there being SO many people as they all run out (there were indeed a lot of characters in the scene). Suyin’s bespectacled son got hurt...but, eh, who cares? I was surprised by how ineffectual everybody was at taking on the big-ass pink/purple-blasting mecha-giant. First, Meelo runs past a store with paint and his idea is for all the air-benders to go flying over the mecha-giant with balloons attached to them that are filled with paint which they hurl at the windows of the machine to block Kuvira's view...but the mecha-suit has window-washers that easily clean the paint off, so
that barely did anything (I think this was just an excuse from the writers to give that annoying little shit something to do - but there were other characters I would've much rather spent his screentime on instead. Did Mako even speak this episode? I did like watching Kuvira try to swat Meelo with the giant hand of the suit and then her trying to blast him). They then try the old cables-around-the-legs trick from ESB, Korra and others blast it with wind but that does very little besides make it trip slightly, then it blasts the shit out of everything again. Opal's hurt somewhere along the line (but again,
who cares?). Asami's dad has been let out of jail because they need all the geniuses they can get to work on the hummingbird flying mecha-suits. Varrick tells Zhu Li a story about an ostrich-horse called Mrs. Beaks whom he loved but took for granted (which is clearly his way of admitting to Zhu Li he's taken her for granted), but she was hoping for more. In the end he proposes (still saying "Do the thing." which has kinda worn out its welcome as a catchphrase by this point, though at one point when he said the line she replied that there was 'no more things to do’ - which was at least a new spin on it).
I forget exactly when, but Kuvira's giant mecha-suit blasts the place where all the hummingbird mecha-suits (which Varrick and Asami have made) are at to smithereens, but she's got some prototypes in her office (exactly how BIG
is her office?). She and her dad have a moment together where it's made clear she's more or less forgiven him - which, as you might've guessed, is pretty much a death sentence for him. Before we get to that, though, Bolin gives the mecha-giant a hot foot with his lava-bending, Tenzin’s hurt saving one daughter from the mecha-giant's blast and Meelo saves
him by slowing his fall. The plan is to use the flying mecha-suits to make a hole in the mecha-giant (there's a mosquito analogy in there somewhere) so they can get inside it, Korra throws everything at it - wind, rocks, water (which she freezes around it) - and Asami's dad ejects Asami from one of the flying mecha-suits after he says his 'ILY's to her and gets swatted by the mecha-giant (after he's managed to cut a hole in it) just like a mosquito. Korra, Asami, Mako, Bolin and the Beifong sisters (I think it was this episode where Lin, Suyin and Bolin - ALL the characters whose names include 'in' - worked together to collapse a building onto the mecha-giant at one point) get through the hole and are now inside the mecha-giant. While all of this was going on, there was some stupid stuff with Tenzin's wife singing to civilians in an attempt to keep them calm and Wu singing about badger-moles which somehow helped evacuate the civilians (thanks to the help of
actual giant badger-moles appearing). The writers clearly thought this was funny, but the only bit I found amusing was one of Kuvira's men saying that Wu's singing
drove away the badger-moles (of course, then this was proven false as the badger-moles returned and made short work of Kuvira's men).
Ep 13/the series finalKuvira breaks her mecha-giant out of the frozen water, Korra assigns jobs to Mako, Bolin, Suyin and Lin now that they're inside the mecha-giant, Bolin creates a lava buzzsaw-looking thing to get where they need to go, the two brothers take out some guys (of which there are strangely not very many and are easily taken out - should've beefed up security in your mecha-giant, Kuvira!), while the two sisters do some major damage to the insides of the machine (they couldn't on the outside, because it was platinum, whereas inside it's metal. Again, Kuvira, better planning would've prevented this!). Whatever is needed doing to put a stop to the mecha-giant, it involves self-sacrificing and Mako's decided *he's* going to be the one to do it. There's a good moment between the bros where Bolin tells him that he doesn't have to prove how 'awesome' he is...he already knows, but in the end Mako stays behind and there's a shitload of electricity surrounding him (SO much that it burns one of the sleeves off his shirt!) and just when it looks like he's going to be the first major casualty, Bolin drags him out to safety. Meanwhile, Korra vs. Kuvira is a big-ass fight in an enclosed space. Whatever damage the others have managed to do to the mecha-giant has made its gun-arm stop working, so Kuvira...rips the arm off and hurls it away? Should've used it to club them with instead, Kuvira! Geez! At one point Korra and Kuvira blast each other back and the giant robot explodes. Korra carries Kuvira out and she hits her with a rock as a 'thank you' and runs off into the forest where the mecha-giant's gun/cannon is caught in vines and it's a 'holy shit!' moment when she fires it directly at Korra, but naturally she manages to avoid the blast. Then suddenly the gun's out of control, zapping EVERYWHERE, Kuvira can't shut it down and just as it's about to zap Kuvira herself, Korra steps in front of her and BLASTS EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE in a giant pink/purple explosion that creates a green sky-beam.
Everyone’s looking for Korra and it turns out that the sky-beam is a new portal to the spirit world, which is where Korra and Kuvira currently are. Kuvira’s
still being rough with Korra, pushing her away as she holds her (ungrateful! She just saved your life! TWICE!), then we learn her sob story about being given away as a child and being taken in by Suyin, blah blah blah. There's more to it than that but I don't really remember the details. Korra sympathises and Kuvira asks why she saved her. I can't remember her answer, but I think it's something to do with her now having reconnected with her spirit self or something. Anyway, Korra carries Kuvira out of the spirit world, reuniting with everyone (while Kuvira's handcuffed - she's a METAL-BENDER, people! What good are those going to do? - and willing to accept her punishment), and there are now spirits everywhere thanks to the portal between the two worlds. Cut to Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding with Bolin as the one who's marrying them (and refusing to read the vows Varrick's given to him for Zhu Li - who dips Varrick when they snog, hopefully hinting that she's
not going to be a pushover in this marriage and will stand up to him when he's acting like his usual self). Pretty much all the characters are at the wedding (including a pro-bending guy from Season 1 who had his bending taken away by Amon - now the dude's playing trombone in the band). Wu's dissolving the monarchy and it’ll be democratic now, as he's gonna pursue his singing career or whatever. There's a nice final moment between Korra and Mako where he says he admires her and would follow her anywhere/always has her back (too bad there was no such final moment between Korra and Bolin). She then gets another nice moment with Tenzin where I took the gist of what she was saying to mean she felt she had to go through all that suffering she did to come out the other side and learn to empathise with Kuvira which was how she defeated her in the end (instead of with brute force). He's then called away by Asami who was just providing a distraction so she could be one-on-one with Korra.
And HERE IT COMES - the moment I'd heard about before ever getting to it in the show (as it was spoiled for me) where Korra and Asami decide they're going to leave and go exploring the spirit world together - "just the two of us" (which was a major F.U. to poor Naga, who was just snoozing there in the background RIGHT BEHIND them. Seriously, Korra's a shitty polar bear dog owner, considering how often she ditches her supposed 'best friend'). According to the show's creators, they'd been laying the groundwork for 'Korrasami' the last couple of seasons (and when you look back on their moments together, you can see it - even if it wasn't so 'overt' early on). They walk to the spirit world portal hand-in-hand and turn to gaze into each other's eyes (like Varrick and Zhu Li just did at their wedding - which was an intentional 'mirroring' apparently, according to the episode commentary),we fade to a bright light and that's the end. I'm sure certain people out there hated this ending, but I was cool with it. I liked these two together and I appreciate that showrunners were willing to 'go there' with the characters (as much as they *could*, anyway). I know some people thought there wasn't enough moments between the two characters previously to make this ending not seem like it was 'random'/'came out of nowhere', but I'm guessing they probably couldn't have been as obvious with the pairing like they were here earlier in the show and they only got away with this because it was the very end. Whatever the restrictions, it's applause-worthy that the show was brave enough to do this and I'm content with the ending (the only thing that could've made it better was if Naga had gone with them...but given what they were probably going to get up to in the spirit world, Naga probably wouldn't have wanted to intrude on their 'alone time'). All in all, this was a pretty satisfactory conclusion to a show that I personally feel has been more consistent overall when compared to A:TLA (which I felt had one really excellent first season...and has had two so-so seasons since). I haven't enjoyed a show
this much in quite a while and I'm forever grateful I ignored all the naysayers and gave TLoK a chance, as it was well worth it.