Korra ~Book 4~ The Thread

As far as I know, no trailers are available for book 4 yet, but it premiers on October 3rd.

It's online only at nick.com and their app.

Since all discussion of the Korra show was taking place in a thread dedicated to criticizing it, I think it would be better to split off from that and just have a regular thread for discourse on the 4th and final season.

So, we know Ms. Kuvira and her "I'm obviously an evil person" smirk will be playing a big part in Book 4.

Here's the trailer for book 4!

I didn't expect the three year time jump. I really dig Korra's new haircut.

I haven't even finished Book 2 yet... I really need to catch up.

That new trailer looks fucking fantastic. And the last few seconds? FUCK.YES!

That new trailer actually looks pretty rad. The Metalbender clan looks pretty cool (those uniforms remind me of something out of Gundam and I'm really loving the look of them), and mechs are always fun. Not a fan of the new airbender flightsuit thingies, but whatever, I'll totally check in and see how it's going from time to time. Maybe Mako will die this season. I can hope.

I can't believe it's so close! Thought we won't see anything until next year.

I haven't watched the last half of book 2 (I think I stopped with the origin story) or Book 3 but now I want to catch up, that trailer looks rad

@animasta: I stopped at the exact same place. Weird.

So weird how quickly Nickelodeon wants to just dump this series.

I'm pretty sure I stopped because it was so good that it made me not care about the Korra stuff as much?

@gnomeonfire: Maybe it was because the show was hitting more with an older demographic than they wanted. If the advertisers weren't making money they were probably pulling ads, which means no max ad money for the network in that time slot.

I haven't finished the book 2 -.-

Except for the end, you can skip book 2 and even then it is only a a side note going forward.

@patoday: we can always hope HBO picks the series up! :|

It would actually be a perfect fit for HBO except for the lack of nudity.

If this show makes it to HBO I expect Pabu to die during the season finale.

I wonder if Netflix should get into serious Animation like this.

Well this is the last season of Korra and the creators have said they're done making new Avatar series for now so... that's not likely to happen. If anyone picks up the rights for whatever reason it would probably be Amazon.

Regardless I think everyone agrees that Nick should never touch shows like this again. :)

so excited! with her new look, she looks badass!

and also, going to swamp to train it looks like. then going back to kick butt?... idk, everyone looks really strong!

Yep from what I remember Amazon Prime has exclusive rights to most of the viacom shows while Hulu Plus plays current viacom broadcast shows. Wouldn't be surprised if it appears on those two streaming service for season 4.

I'm so very excited for this new season. I loved how they freakin' pulled this series out with the last season. So good. I wouldn't mind them going to do something different to give them a break. Man, I just love the world of Avatar.

@corruptedevil said:

Totally! Season 2 doesn't get any better than the origin two-parter, but season 3 was really great. I don't know exactly what they did(though I believe they hired back some of the old writers from the Last Airbender), but in season 3 Korra changed from something I watched out of obligation because I liked Last Airbender to something I actually really enjoyed. I'm so bummed the villains in that season have no way of appearing in that upcoming Platinum game, and I'm very excited for what this next season will be.

I just hope the timeskip doesn't change the relationships of everyone. I like timeskips when they are there to skip training, or to skip long-term plans, or place villains where they need to be in order to be fought properly. It was pretty good in One Piece, when everyone was set on a path and that path then happened as expected. There was no surprise when the head of an enemy organization stepped down, and then in the two year gap his two most powerful subordinates came to a clash over who should be the leader. The one of them who was a decent human being left that organization and is now a vague ally of the heroes. It was what you could expect from the scenario that was left at the time before the timeskip, and it means the relationship to the organization itself remains the same.

I loathed it in Young Justice season 2, when what was built up in season 1 was torn away with no explanation until later and a bunch of new characters were introduced off-screen. If time skips in Korra and suddenly Bumi is a villain or something, I'll be so pissed.

The action scenes in season 3 were very well done and if this seasons ends up being that 80% of the time, then I'm into it.

Also, I won't be able to discuss at least the first few episodes of the show until the Sunday of their release week.

I want to know how they follow up from book 3 in terms of villains. Zaheer was such a great villain and such a good threat to Korra that I am curious what they are going to do to follow up on that

I know right! I enjoyed watching the pro bending stuff. I wonder what other stories there cooking up, other then LoK.

Oh, man, are we going to get an entire season of Zelda Williams playing the primary villain? That'd be great.

I just hope the creative people behind the show are being well-compensated for their work. With how unceremoniously Nick has shoved it all out the door following their own fuck-ups, it seems like they're just taking every available opportunity to cut costs.

@redhotchilimist: I really hope the Platinum game is good.

The time skip in Young Justice was super jarring and I was pissed for the first 3 episodes but we still got a fantastic season out of it. All the triple crosses and big moments made it totally worth it.

Agreed. Imagine how amazing the show could be if Netflix had picked it up. No need to censor any violence on screen or adult situations/themes. It could go full anime and do whatever.

Here's the preview for the 1st episode of Season 4:

TLoK's quality has been quite inconsistent at times, but Book 3 was such a notable improvement across the board that I'm super looking forward to this. Here's hoping Korra goes out with a bang. (But not literally. Please don't die, Korra.)

To be fair, Korra has to have a massive budget (I'd guess around 20 million per season) and they ordered four seasons of it. They didn't handle the advertising or scheduling well, but the truth is, Korra just might not be right for Nick's demographic and moving it online was probably for the best. Four seasons and a chance to wrap up is more than most children's shows (or TV shows in general) get.

I still need to finish book 3. =-/

@matthewthebeast:

Oh God, what horrible thing has happened in these three years where Mako actually has his shit together now.

Book 2 was great. I really don't understand the hate for it. It was a slower season overall, but it built up to something great. I can't wait for Book 4!

@liquidprince: My problem with it is that the writers and creators could to better than the middle part of that season. It shows with how that season ended. And it also shows how season 3 ended up. They are clearly very, VERY talented and know exactly how to tell a wonderful story.

Shit is really starting to hit the fan in the one piece anime (I don't read the manga) after 2 years (?) of boring post time skip arcs with underwhelming vilains and it's goddamn incredible. Vilains are shadowy, mysterious and threatening for the first time in years, they're following multiple interesting subplots at the same time and they're pulling from that humongous backstory for some cool payoffs.

So yeah, one piece and the legend of korra all the way.

I felt the entire season was very strong. The complaints I heard from a few people in person was that they felt it didn't have enough action. But for me, I'm all about good story telling and world building, and that is what the majority of Book 2 was. The build up is what allows for the action climax scenes to actually feel climactic. The most emotional thing that happened to me in Book 2 was Raava telling Korra that she was the Avatar, and that she shouldn't give up and that felt emotional, not only because of what that statement means in the world of Avatar, but because everything in the season was building up to the fight with Raava and Vaatu.

@liquidprince: For me, Book 2's deepest failing was that it got away from what I thought the series did best. Although the Avatar universe is pretty fanciful with all the kung fu magic, the conflicts in the series are, at their core, ideological. But at some point in Book 2, the whole thing just veers into hoary fantasy cliche: some power-hungry wizard wants to free his dark god from an ancient prison. No thanks.

I'd have been much happier if Book 2 was just about a holy war between water tribes, with Varrick being a sleazy corporate warmonger on the side. The way the season actually ended, with a giant kaiju battle in Republic City bay, just struck me as laughable, like a parody.

That Book 3 had much lower stakes by comparison, and managed to tell a gripping story while still being somewhat grounded, made it much stronger overall.

The core conflict in Book 2 was ideological. Unalaq was questioning the entire way that the Avatar world had been set up for us the viewers since The Last Airbender; that there was only one being that could bridge the two worlds and bring balance to them both. The ramifications of a Dark Avatar are tremendous. To have another being in that universe that could potentially master all four elements, but be a proponent of chaos like the Red Lotus, as opposed to peace is, the most base ideology. Peace versus chaos.

Still haven't rewatch the entire series at this point (1-3), but I still recall Book 2 being only great at around the Wan's episodes and beyond. Although, the ending was a bit off-putting with the Deus Ex Machinas and even the creators had little to no idea how to back them up. (http://avatarthelegendofkorraonline.com/the-legend-of-korra-book-2-spirits-audio-commentary-notes/6054/).

Of course, I still very much look forward to Season 4. I just can't help but bemoan the lost potential of the setting, basically the Avatar universe version of the Interwar period: Communism/Anarchism revolution and/or struggle, Spanish/Russian Civil War, 20th Cen. Chinese Warlord Period and etc.

The parallels applies mostly to Books 1,3 and maybe 4. ATLA was essentially the fight to restore the status quo of the world. Whereas LOK was mostly about challenging and breaking down old institutions. e.g. "The world doesn't need the Avatar." , collapse of the central power in the Earth Kingdom, and radical answers to social/economic inequality.

Since the situation in Book 4 seems to be the Chinese Warlord Period with the a inept heir apparent in toll. I wonder if we'll see ideologically charged factions in the same vain of the civil wars mentioned above. Would be interesting, but I don't think that'll be possible with only 13 episodes.

Anyways, here's my fan prediction/speculation :

-Kuvira, the suspicious looking lass from Book 3 and possible authoritarian in Book 4. I'm going to guess she was a Red Lotus member, metal benders being part of that organization is not unheard of. Much like the main villain from Book 2, deviated from anarchism. For her case, I'm guessing a military meritocracy. Obvious parallel is the Trotsky-Stalin split.

-Korrasami

-Prince Not Gonna Be Earth King is gonna die. Maybe Toph might be a transitional figure-head of a new overarching government for... the region that was the Earth Kingdom. They really need actual names for the landmasses.

@liquidprince: If that's what that Raava/Vaatu stuff was intended to convey, may I submit that the writers did a piss poor job of it. Zaheer's anarchist philosophy is validated in Book 3 because the writers demonstrate that the Earth Kingdom's traditional monarchy has created a disenfranchised underclass. That's why they took great pains to show us how fucked up Ba Singh Se was: to elevate Zaheer from gormless thug to kinda almost making sense.

In my opinion, the writers do nothing nearly as interesting with Unalaq. The ramifications of the Dark Avatar are indeed tremendous, but there's nothing to say there, no larger point: he's just a bad guy who wants to mess everything up. If Book 2 has any driving ideological theme, it's about traditionalism and dogmatism with the water tribe stuff, but they abandon that angle by the time Raava and Vaatu show up.

@matthewthebeast: In a series that deals with a lot of mysticism, not knowing the exact science behind what is going on at the time that you write something isn't something that I find necessarily damnable. The creators had a vague idea about what Jinora was doing, which was accelerating Raava's return and that eventually led to the Air Benders finally having their sub-elemental technique in Astral Projection. Working with a cool visual and idea and then justifying it later can be part of the creative process and I see nothing wrong with them saying they didn't know the specifics of what was happening in that scene. It ended up being something real cool and significant and they were up front about it.

The problem with "Book 2" was that Korra seemed to want to believe the bad guys for little reason and blithely ignore trusted friends and colleagues for no reason while also suffering from being a bit impulsive for unknown "just because I want to hurry" reasons. Basically the actions Korra took didn't make much sense. The underlying plot did have a lot of promise but was only used to raise the stakes in the final fight giving it a cost.

I don't think it's fair to judge Unalaq while only looking at what happens in book 2. While each season of Korra can stand on it's own, every succeeding season sheds some new information on the preceding one. In this case, much of the significance of what he was trying to do was expanded upon in Book 3, where it was revealed that he was originally part of the Red Lotus as well, but splintered off in order to achieve a variation of the type of chaos that Zaheer wanted. While Zaheer wanted anarchy and a world where there were no rulers, Unalaq wanted instead the world under one rule. He wanted to use the powers of the Dark Avatar to become the one master of the world. It stems from a similar ideology, then separates into a very different thing in practice. The cool thing about Book 3 was that it explained a lot of why Korra was so closely guarded by the White Lotus all her life, which is also why she became so socially awkward.

The through line so far in every season has been someone who has tried to prove that the role of the Avatar has become irrelevant, so much so that it finally broke Korra in Book 3. Amon wanted to take the thing that makes the Avatar unique away from her, in the form of her Bending. Unalaq wanted to be the mirror image of the Avatar and throw the world into chaos instead of letting it exist in peace. Zaheer wanted something similar to Unalaq, except with no Avatar at all, be it Dark or Light.

earth- rockville

fire- burny place

water- splish splash zone

air- blowtopia

... i've got nothing

@liquidprince: That's why I generally am wary of backfilling in fiction: even if new information does cast a different light on prior events, that doesn't change the poor experience I had viewing those events the first time.

Anyway, Zaheer's reveal about Unalaq did not substantially change how I viewed his character or motives, so how that information was delivered is sort of a moot point.

Then that is where we differ. I love when any form of entertainment goes back and makes you look at old information under new light. It makes things that didn't seem quit as significant originally stand out in a cool way, and reshapes some of what you thought of older happenings. As long as the new information doesn't create plot holes or inconsistencies, then I'm all for them. In Korra's case, Book 3 added to Unalaq's back story in a very intelligent way.