**obviously,
this contains all the spoilers for Book Three.
If ye have not finished the season, what in the hell is wrong thou? Get thine ass to the couch!**
Given the degree to which
Nickelodeon made literally every wrong decision it could have possibly made in
regards to how to handle both this franchise as a whole and this new season in
particular, the fact that Book Three is not only good but easily the best
season in the series so far is something of a Christmas miracle. It’s so good, there is absolutely no sense in
me doing the usual "What Worked" and "What Didn't Work" lists I did for Books
One and Two. Oh, there were parts I
thought didn’t work, or where I would have liked to see the story go a slightly
different way, or a few awkward jokes that whistled past my ear, but on the
other hand, there is nothing at all approaching the head-slapping
ridiculousness of Book One’s still-official ending, or the absurdities of
Korra’s bemusing character relapses in Book Two. At long last, we’ve gotten a season as
perfectly formed and executed as any in The Last Airbender, so this time
around, no negatives. Instead, let’s
just celebrate.
Something that I took note of after
watching the finale (after my heart rate had returned to normal, obviously), is
that, thus far, each season of Korra has ended with her being put through the
ringer and having some aspect of her powers broken off. Granted, they whitewashed this out at the
very end of season one, but even there, for a period of time, Korra had lost
her ability to bend any element except air.
At the end of Book Two, partially due to her inability to stop Tarrloq
2.0 earlier, Raava is literally ripped out of her and nearly obliterated,
causing Korra’s spiritual connection to the past avatars to vanish, possibly
forever. And at the end of this latest
season, she is injured from her bending battle with Zaheer and also suffering
from the debilitating effects of a poison that may or may not have permanently
damaged her spiritual and bending powers.
This time around, it’s bad enough that she is physically incapable, at
least for now, of acting as the avatar. The
cumulative effect, after three seasons of this, is a final shot that rivals the
end of Book Two of The Last Airbender for its sense of heartbreaking gravity;
even with the Red Lotus defeated and the air nation reestablished, Korra’s face
looks ravaged almost beyond recognition.
For better or for worse, the confidence and cocksureness that have been
the hallmarks of her character are gone.
Because of this- because we finally
see more consequences for Korra’s actions both good and bad, things that cannot
be solves with a bending battle- Korra has finally become the interesting lead
worth feeling invested in that I was sorely missing from the first few seasons. I never disliked her, but on the other hand,
she was always the least-interesting character on-screen, and it was during
this season that that finally began to change.
Not only did I enjoy her presence far more than in the past two Books,
for the first time since the show started, I also feel sorry for her losses.
Props must also be given to Mako,
who, like Korra and Asami, has finally been unburdened of the frustrating
relationship baggage that peppered the first two Books. Able to focus solely on the story as a whole
and not on romantic side plots, this season ended up being easily the most
tightly written of the series. I went
back and rewatched the season trailer before finishing this post, and thinking
back on everything that happened, from the start in Republic City, to the journey
through the Earth Kingdom and the gathering of new airbenders, to the prison
breaks, to Zaheer's pursuit of Korra, to the destruction of the Northern Air
Temple, to the final battle and Jinora’s induction as an air master, I realized just how
much story Mike and Brian managed to cram into 13 episodes, easily enough for a
whole other season if they had had the time.
And yet, unlike with the previous Book, nothing ever felt rushed or
pushed to the side. All the pieces fell
wonderfully into place.
The show has also continued to get a
hell of a lot darker. I imagine plenty
of people are split about that, but personally, I think the franchise has
matured in the right ways, tackling complex issues and the horrors of violence
in ways that both provoke reflection and provide for gripping
storytelling. I thought I would never
see anything out of this series to top the exploding boat at the end of Book
One, but that expectation took a shot right between the eyes when the Earth
Queen literally had the breath bended out of her body. And even that moment of terror was superseded
just a few episodes later with P'Li's death.
All it took was a second of seeing her face encased in metal, and a few
more of Zaheer's reaction of utter horror. The
scene still gives me the shivers.
Something that I also appreciated in
this season was its increased focused on real-world, practical politics as the
basis of much of the storyline and plot.
As Rob Walker pointed out, other than the spirit Vaatu,
all of the antagonists of Korra have
been political, at least in terms of their motives. And that has been the source of her failings
and shortcomings as an avatar. She
really is the perfect mirror of Aang- Aang, at least at first, lacked the
fighting and martial prowess to truly be able to take on the Fire Lord head-on,
but already had much of the emotional and spiritual intelligence and
understanding that allowed him to make, in many instances, to make beneficial
decisions about maintaining peace. Korra
is the epitome of a natural, able to grasp any form of bending with ease. But she has never had the real emotional or
intellectual center to counter the claims made by Ammon or Zaheer regarding what
the best path for the nations of the world is.
Her conversation in the spirit world with Zaheer was one of my favorite scenes
of the entire season, the sort of direct debate that I had hoped for in Book
One.
That said, obviously, there are a
great many aspects of the story left unresolved, and whether or not that proves
wise will be determined by season 4, which, thankfully, was already close to
finished when the Nickelodeon management board suffered its latest psychotic
breakdown. This time around, I am fully
excited for a new season without any of the reservations I held going into the
premiere of each of the three Books thus far.
I can hardly wait.
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