The Legend of Korra ~ Book Four: Balance

Korra is over. It is a sad day in the Rossman household. You see, there will not likely be another Avatar series. Ever.

It's well-known that Nickelodeon fucked with this 4th Korra series and banished it to a nick.com only release, along with slashing its production budget (which brought about a full recap episode [what is this, 1999?!]). I just don't get it, and nobody else can give a good reason why any of this was done. From what I hear, ratings were good for Korra... At least they were before they moved it from its well-known time slot on Nickelodeon to fuck-only-knows when (seriously, I have no idea what day and time it aired after the first season); but that appears to be a symptom of the hate, and not the cause.

Anyway, Korra Book Four is all about the evils of a military-led communist state. I'm not shitting you. The big bad of this, the final season, is a powerful Earth-bender who conquers the chaos left in the Earth Kingdom after the assassination of the Earth Queen in Book Three. This power-bender, Kuvira (who wants to be known as "The Great Uniter"), has her mind set on subjugation, and her merry band of traveling soldiers are either blindly loyal (like Toph's retardedly love-sick grandson who only wants to boink Kuvira Earth-bender-style), or too trusting (like Bolin, who after seeing Korra step up to being an awesome Avatar, and his bro Mako turn into a pretty bad-ass Republic City cop, wanted to do something good for the world himself).

During all this, we find out that Korra has had a really hard time recovering from the poison she was dealt at the end of Book Three, and has left her friends and family behind while she goes out into the world to search for answers to her problems. Her many, many problems. I'm telling you, Book Four starts on a bummer note, and continues to just get more depressing as it goes along. But in a good way (at least for us, the viewer).

This season of Korra is all about growing and forgiveness. You could make the argument that pretty much every good story is about growing, sure, but the growth seen here by Korra alone is something special. Korra is suffering from some major self-doubt after almost dying, and almost having the future of the Avatar line wiped out with her at the hands of Zaheer the last time around, but it's not all mental. The poison that was forced into her body is causing her massive pains and giving her visions of death (along with the Avatar-state personified, who randomly appears and kicks her ass), but luckily enough, some of Korra's spirit friends lead her to somebody who might be able to help her: the ancient but still snarky Toph Beifong!

Toph may be all hunched over and elderly now, but she's still Toph. She's still powerful as fuck and the best insult comic since Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. She's blunt to Korra, and even though she doesn't step up in the way that you (or at least I) hope she would (as she points out, it's not her fight anymore), Toph helps Korra out more than anybody that she's come across yet. *Sniff* Good ol' Toph.

Wait a minute... So, we've seen Katara, Zuko, Toph, and found out about Sokka.... But what about Suki? WHERE'S MY SUKI, GODDAMMIT! Did she get it on with Sokka? Did she and Zuko actually knock boots like the after-series comics seemed to be pointing at? TELL ME!

Sorry.

Anyway, Book 4 brought back quite a bit of characters from previous seasons that I thought we'd never see again, and the threat grew naturally from previous plots and actions that Korra took in the past as well. And it all led up to...

SPOILERS

Team Avatar fighting a giant robot powered by Shizuma Drives? Whut? Seriously? THIS was the finale of a 4 season build-up? Granted, no other bender could top Amon or Zaheer in terms of power or scariness, but the final fight just felt kind of lame and impersonal to me. And after the frightfully epic battle at the end of the third season, where everything Korra held dear was at stake, this season just ended with a robot from Pacific Rim (with *OOOOoooooOOOOMmm* sound effects and all) stepping through Republic City, and the good guys trying to trip it up. Then it just ends and wraps everything up in a heartbeat almost painted with let down. If the cut budget led to this rapid resolution, then that's just one more FUCK YOU aimed at Nickelodeon. Fuck you, Nick.

SPOILERS OVER

And now I'll talk vaguely about that real ending... I mean the very last 2 minutes of screen time of the series... So weird. Especially how they played off Korra's final choice of lovah. Not that I have anything bad to say about her choice (quite honestly, I thought that these two had the most in common and were the best couple of the series), just that they had very little lead up as to whom Korra would choose before the very last scene of the show. It's like "Hey, yeah, we should just go on vacation together, you and I. Alone. Awwww yeah!" And then hand in hand they run away to the Spirit World through a Spirit portal and disappear in its golden light.

As soon as the credits rolled I turned to Cupcake and asked, "Did... Did those two just become an item, because, where the fuck did that come from?" Cupcake replied with, "Yeah, I think they did, and I have no idea... I gotta watch that ending again." Then we did, but it did not alleviate our confusion in the least.

So in the end, what did I think of The Legend of Korra ~ Book Four? It was enjoyable, but it was the least of all the Korra seasons, which is a poor way to go out. It had a strong start, but honestly, that final threat to Republic City was pretty lame. Still, it was quite entertaining, especially when compared to most of the crap on TV today. I still give it 3 out of 4 Elements of Bendability.

Whoo-hoo! You go, Korra! Now THAT is a progressive gal!

Ah liked this Korra show, so much better than that first Avatar show that just featured lil' kids. They all had fun times an' all, but all they ever experienced was just puppy love an' stuff. They never dove into anything like......

Lllllllllllesbians. Mmmmmm...

Or did Ah just imagine that? It's been known to happen. Anyway, y'all, you should watch this show. Yeah, it's a cartoon, but whatevah, good cartoonin's still good something or other.

Korra's a lady of mah own heart. Hmmmm, Ah may need to look up some shippin' fanfic now that it's all over. Ah love you, Korra! Call me! Oh, and I give it a thumb up... Mmmmm, thumbs up things....

Oh yeah, ladies! You know that I'M a bender...

Oh, wait, are we talking about different things here? We are, aren't we... Oh poo!

Okay, well, this Air-bender show is pretty nifty, but it's nothing to bleach one's asshole over, if you get my drift. And if you don't, I'll just have to show you my drift. *Giggle!*

Good stuff, just not as good as the Bebop.... Did I even need to mention that? Probably not. It's self-evident. But I'll always toot my own horn when given the chance.... I'll even let YOU toot my horn too! *Titter!* I give this show one meaty package straight up! I'll let you guess "up what?"