Korra ~Book 4~ The Thread

That was a pretty good Finale. It took three seasons but Korra ended up a pretty rad Avatar, and her and Asami hooking up is roughly 1000 times more bearable than if either of them had gone back to Mako. Coincidentally, Mako also ended up being not so awful this season, largely because he spent most of his time with the prince. At least 2 seasons of Korra turned out to be pretty good, which is more than I could have hoped for after those first two!

I'll still be in the corner selling "Kuvira was Right" shirts, though.

Everything Zhu-li in the episode was the highlight for me. From there are no more things left to do to the kiss it was all hysterical.

That was an excellent finale. Really enjoyed this series. And even though there were hints I did not expect the end at all! Granted, it is left somewhat open to interpretation, but I don't care!

Will we see more Avatar? That's what I want to know!

Also, I am glad that the thing was finally done.

@splodge: Not from the creators of TLA and Korra we won't, but I highly doubt Nickelodeon will just let the franchise sit when they could make Fartatar: The Legend of Meelo and finally get rid of their last well written show.

I would love to see Netflix pick it up. That way they could just take their time, do an entire series, and release it all at once :)

The thing is though that Nick owns the IP not the creators, and they are well known for holding onto their IPs with an iron grip even when they aren't doing anything real with them so they can put the characters in baseball games or whatever.

"The wondrous, and at times inexplicable bond..."

I thought the show was cancelled a long time ago! WTF, I've been missing out! D:

Whatever that ending was, whether they are friends, bros, sisters, or lovers, this was a fantastic season.

Korrasami fucking confirmed!!!!

And can we talk about just how much of an absolute BADASS Bolin became? He was bending Hulk levels of weight in that battle with the mech. And that lava shuriken thing? Sick!

I now right? Plus, Mako became a badass too! For a second I thought they were going to kill him! O_O

Didn't know they released the episodes a day early.

In any case, I decided to do a bullet point reaction list as I watched the final two episodes. Here it is:

• Beifong doesn't listen to anyone...she listened to Meelo?
• Bolin's lava powers were kind of a random thing in season 3, but it's cool that he's so useful now.
• Very cool shot of Korra roll dodging the giant laser on the roof as it causes a line of explosions in the background.
• Oh yeah, of course you're sorry now Jr. You spit on your family and home until Kuvira tried to kill you. This shit ain't working on me. You don't have a family after that in my book.
• Wu being a badgermole whisperer is pretty funny, although it kind of clashes with the tone of the episode.
• Woah, Korra can firebender fly whenever she wants with the avatar state. Also, she seems to be able to blend moving in and out of it. She was carrying those bolders with her as she was firebending up then continued to throw the bolders out of the avatar state.
• OK, Meelo's menacing maniacal stare at Kuvira was placed juuust right.
• Yeah, I thought they should've either earthbended her feet from under her or toppled a building onto her sooner.
• Metal Bender web slingers just being bosses around town.
• Smart move on the mech with the water. Worked for Katara.
• Of course Asami's dad was gonna do that. "There's our opening" is a rather cold thing to say, Korra. But perhaps in the heat of battle, it's better to stay focused on the task regardless of the falling of friends and comrades. Though that seems unrealistic.
• "we're in"
• Ha! Lava buzzsaw! That's the kind of ingenuity with Bending I wanted to see throughout LoK.
• Excellent shot of Beifong and Su looking down at the moving gears and guts of the mech.
• Lol, Korra's entrance. It's like out of a horror movie. The monster came to play. "Huaaah!"
• Bro it out guys, bro it out.
• Damn, this is the first time I've seen Mako really get into the old school style lightning bending. It looks sort of like a slow, threatening dance. I guess that means he's supercharging it.
• Mako's arm got Zuko'd.
• Whenever Korra does something super spiritual like this, I always find it hard to believe. It seems like it was pulled out of thin air. Let's see what this new spirit portal business is all about.
• I can't buy Kuvira's sap story. This turnaround seems forced.
• "You transformed the world in a few years more than most avatars do in their lifetime". No freaking shit yo.
• Oh wow, real coy there guys. I'm suuuure that leaves things super ambiguous about Korra and Asami. Although I suppose they weren't trying to be ambiguous. They just went as far with the pair as they dared to on a Nick kid's show.

TL;DR Highlight was definitely the Korra v Kuvira fight. Great choreography. I'd like to see the scenes of that fight spliced together.

If only the rest of the show was like this. Excellent job on the finale. It rivals and in some instances (the action parts) surpasses the finale of Airbender, and that's super high praise from a person like me who was unhappy most of the way through the show about how they were writing Korra as a character (and other things). Still pretty bumpy with character stuff, but the action was rock solid.

Final Note: Hopefully the creators of the show have learned quite a bit from this experience since they played a bigger role in writing Korra. They'll likely not put out anything for a while, then move onto non-Avatar stuff, but I'd really like to see a badass Earth / metal / lava bending avatar in a cyberpunk-ish world. Maybe a street urchin this time who has a traumatic experience wherein he lost a younger brother ("I failed to protect him"). The avatar is outwardly confident, but struggles with the role since it's naturally a protective one and things only get more complicated when the avatar takes on a younger kid as a sidekick. Yes, I'm MAKING UP MY OWN AVATAR STORY. Believe me, there are a lot more intricate details I'm leaving out. Oh well, back to this thing not ever existing.

Korra's not anime. It's Awsome Cartoons for Cool Guys.

Other than the whole "not made in Japan" thing it's basically anime.

@Aegon

Had not even thought of a futuristic Avatar! The natural progression of the republic city technology, using bending to control / design computers etc. Spirit world hacking systems. The possibilities....

@corevi: You are obviously not fluent in Dan Logic...

No I'm really not.

I would still want fights in natural landscapes like mountain ranges, ancient ruins, valleys, jungles, but have a cyberpunky city structure. It could also allow for all kinds of cool avatar gadgets. Aang had his hang glider staff, so why not something more?

Maybe some evil corporation could hijack the spirit world to turn it into a Snowcrash style metaverse and sell property and acreage to users who jack in through some kind of spirit-interface. You could have all the battles take place in the new spirit world as bending has somehow been confined to that space or something.... Gah, a futuristic Avatar just gives me all kinds of nerd-boners.

I had my suspicions but I just want to confirm Asami and Korra together?

I just hope Nick hands the rights back over to the creators so they can bring it back in the future. It's not like they are going to do anything with it to draw income other than the DVD/Blu-Ray release.

They will hold onto the Avatar license so they can put the characters into mobile games and sell merch.

It's what happened to every other good Nick show.

@aegon: I had a really strong suspicion about the two when they first saw each other again after the time apart. I understood they were close but I had a hunch there was more to them. I'm glad they sorta answered the question between the two sorta ambiguously, not sure if they would of outright done something that would of put people up and arms about but glad they addressed it. To see this in an american cartoon show is actually pretty awesome.

@i_stay_puft: I bet it wouldn't have been in there if a single executive at Nick cared about Korra anymore. It seems like these final few episodes weren't even submitted to the censors.

Nick will license their own sports drinks with each bottle portraying a drink color of their respected character. I can imagine it now

Korra - Blastin Blueberry

Mako - Firey Punch

Bolin - Weeeeeeeed Green

Asami - Punctuating Purple

Tenzin - Old

@i_stay_puft: I'm a sucker for weird Blueberry (though Blue Raspberry is even better) drinks so I would totally drink the Korra one.

My gut reaction was "Wow, that was a great ending and really brave". Then a few seconds afterwards I felt kind of angry that I felt it had to be called "Brave". There have been plenty of romantic moments throughout the Avatar series that have shown people kissing etc, but nooooooooooooooooooo we cant show agirl kissing another girl. .

Kids these days do not give a SHIT about that stuff. I have two nephews, 8 and 14, and my best friends kid who is 12. All these kids I have spoken to completely understand the world in a way I never did when I was a little kid. It is normal to them almost. There is still the playground nonsense, but it does not mean what it did when I was growing up.

I understand why they could not show them kissing, but I did feel a little frustrated because the kids that I know would not have batted an eye, in fact they would probably have just said "Ewww they're kissing!" like most kids do.

I think they wanted to make a statement while at the same time hopefully not make it "the" statement of the entire show. You gotta remember there's a pretty interesting plot there with the last season and didn't want the relationship to be the focal point. I'm actually quite happy they left it at that cause we've all seen how they handled past romantic relationships with these characters and that shit can be on some Star Wars prequel level of awkwardness.

While I personally do believe that the ending shot was meant as a way to say that Korra and Asami started a relationship, people can rightfully debate that it might not have been that at all. There is nothing inherently sexual about two friends holding hands. It could also signal, that Korra who has never had a real female friend her entire life, ended up creating an unbreakable bond with Asami, who provided emotional support in a way that neither Mako or Bolin could provide in her various times of need.

Had they stopped at them holding hands as they walked into the portal, I would have bought the good friends thing, but then they had to add the shot of them facing each other and taking both hands, staring at each other longingly as it panned away.

I really, REALLY wish they had committed to that ending fully. I understand why they couldn't (and seeing that ending made me realize why we had all the confusion about whether the show should be online only or not), but still. Overall, thought it was really good. Sad to see the show go. I liked having something every week to look forward to. It was alway interesting watching a show be so inconsistent with it's quality then really find it's stride later on, mid-season. Overall, not as good as Last Airbender, but when the highs are there, it's there!

Yeah there seems to be a lot of resistance to the idea that they got together... not sure why. It was plain as day to me.

Actual kissing would have shifted the emotional focus, for the worse IMO. It's not about them 'getting together', it's about them being together. What makes that scene great is true regardless of the supposed ambiguity. Something that could be dismissed as 'ew, smooches' wouldn't have been nearly as effective.

@markwahlberg: Yeah you are right, I guess it is just frustrating knowing that if they HAD kissed, there would have been some kind of bat-shit crazy backlash. I think we are almost at a point where no one gives a shit about that stuff anymore, but it is going to take a few generations of kids who don't care growing up.

:']

@i_stay_puft: Yup totally platonic! I do that with my buddies all the time. We hold each others hands in front of us, gaze lovingly into each others eyes, then go on a holiday, just the two of us.

I know this topic is mainly focused on Book 4, but I'm still on Book 2 and I just wanted to get your guys opinion on Book 2 Beginnings being supremely spectacular.

By far, my favorite paired episodes in the entire Avatar series, thus far. That arc had the heart and quality of a Hayao Miyazaki film. If the franchise were to ever return to the big screen, I would hope it would base itself with this story line and characters. Just fantastic in every aspect; art, music, choreography of fights, emotional moments, character growth, all of it got me saying wowowowowow. Does anything in the series after this point match the grandness of these episodes?

@fr0br0: Personally I wouldn't say nothing from the series ever lives up to the fantasy type stuff that occurs in season 2. It is interesting to see what the ending of season 2 has done on the entire avatar world which becomes the basic premise for season 3.

FUCK YEAH KORRASAMI SQUEEEEEE

that is all i have to add

I wasn't a big fan of most of the finale consisting of fighting that big, dumb mech fight, but man the last ten minutes make up for it. Korra's talk with Kuvira was the high point of the season for me. I could totally see Korra in the same place as Kuvira if she had kept being the asshole she was in the middle of book 2 (protecting her people at all costs and all). Korra saving Kuvira and understanding her motivations just show how much Korra has grown since the beginning of the series. A lesser show may have let Kuvira destroy herself with her own weapon or have something even more cringe-worthly happen, like let the spirits kill her (which I totally thought would happen as soon as she entered the spirit wilds).

Avatar and Korra were fucking amazing shows. There are still things I would of liked to seen explored and I hope they do revisit the Avatar/Korra universe someday, but honestly, I'm totally okay with the entire thing ending with Korra and Asami walking romantically into the sunset.

I just realized season 1 & 2 is on prime instant video. Guess I should start watching it. Loved The Last Airbender.

That ending. That FUCKING ending.

I couldn't be happier right now.

Yeah, nothing romantic about "a vacation with just two of us", handing hands and glazing into each other's eyes. I do it all the time with everyone, all the time bro.

Seasons 3 and 4 are much better than 1 and 2.

So all those rumors about slumber parties are true!

I'll just leave this here.

I won't comment much on the finale that much because it would just devolve into an over-hyperbolic spewing of pure enjoyment that has been better expressed by others here. I was one of those though at first who wished they just showed the kiss, but upon reading these comments, I changed my tune. I think that wouldn't have fit the show. Much of The Last Airbender was about Aang's love for Katara so much so that major plot points centered around it. That finale needed to bring that story to a definitive close. The Legend of Korra had romantic subplots involving Korra, but focused more on Korra's development from an immature unlikable person to an all right and competent person. Walking into the sunset with her best friend and closest confidant was far more fitting of an ending. Of course, I, like probably many, assumed that they did the thing.

All in all, I thought book 4 was great, but could have used a few more episodes to flesh things out better. To me, Book 3 stands as some of the best TV this year and possibly ever for me.

I do need to ask though: what is the general consensuses on the first season? When it first aired, it seemed everyone was super into it except for the last episode, but it seems to have fallen out of favor. I personally think it is very good, though not to the levels of books 3 and and 4.

Book 2 was kind of.... well.... um..... yeah.

Actually, that's how I saw it until I came to the forums. I just thought Korra, someone who never had a bond with a female,found a great friend.

I saw the ending as Korra and Asami formed a bond closer to a sisterhood than friendship. Sisters console each other; sisters take trips together; sisters hold hands. Someone may say they look lovingly into each other's eyes, I see them looking at each other and non-verbally saying, "Ready to do this?" The ending said to me that a woman can be strong, form great friendships with other women, and don't need to have a man in their life to be happy.

I know people want to strongly push for this ship, but everything can be explained in a non-romantic way. If it makes you happy thinking that they're in a relationship, that's fine, but I don't think people are wrong in saying they're not.