Legend of Korra (Book 4: Balance)

[Philip J. Fry]

First clip. Watch at yer own risk.


[

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I can't and won't see it.

]

[

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]
And this is how she'll look next season.

[Philip J. Fry]

[EvilShoe]

This is confirmed to be the last season, right?

Season 3 was my favourite season of this by far, so can't wait to see how they wrap it up.

[Philip J. Fry]

This is confirmed to be the last season, right?

Season 3 was my favourite season of this by far, so can't wait to see how they wrap it up.

Yes, it is.

[Philip J. Fry]

Trailer.

[Wryan]

"Three Years Later"

HOLY. SHIT. They are jumping that far ahead!? That's quite unexpected. Looks like that eleventh hour character introduction at the end of last season is indeed going to come to the fore. Looks terrific. Can't wait. So glad we're not going to have to wait for a year.

EDIT: Looks like that woman is looking to build up a new Earth Kingdom, much stronger and more unified than before (if unified by force). Given that earth benders are potentially able to control metal and fire (in the form of lava) in addition to all regular forms of earth, that makes them very well-rounded and formidable. I'm also really excited to see the kids aged up. Really looking forward to seeing Jinora express her power at a higher level.

[Philip J. Fry]

"Three Years Later"

HOLY. SHIT. They are jumping that far ahead!? That's quite unexpected. Looks like that eleventh hour character introduction at the end of last season is indeed going to come to the fore. Looks terrific. Can't wait. So glad we're not going to have to wait for a year.

And most important of all...
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OH MY GOD TOPH!!!

]

[Wryan]

And most important of all...
[

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OH MY GOD TOPH!!!

]

[

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What? Where? I didn't see her. Oh nvm, I didn't even watch to the end ha.

]

[Philip J. Fry]

After All These Years...
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- I kinda died with Shiro Shinobi's opening narration... "City of Spirit Vines", Bryke (or maybe in this case Joshua Hamilton) always find ways to surprise me. And book one's hobo there was great.- Avatar Korra park!!! Totally a PR move by Reiko, BTW.
- Meelo is still hilarious (I loved the metal chord when he said he now was a man!!), Ikki has developed some snarky tendencies and is... quiet. TEENAGERS!!!
- Jinora and Kai are officially BF's... Dawww.
- Being that she hates that he's with Kuvira and the troubles with long distance relationships, I predict that Opal will break up with Bolin sometime this season.
- And speaking of Kuvira, my guess, wild guess is that she's taking advantage of the instability brought to the Earth Kingdom after the queen's death to gain political power, sort of similar to how people like Napoleon and Hitler began to rise. She provides stability, food, peace and at the same time, she gets territory, economical resources and loyalty... and then moves to the next town.
She isn't. in my opinion, Red Lotus because instead of getting the anarchic freedom they were looking for, she unifies the Earth Kingdom, gives it order... and rules it with an iron fist.
- Bolin works for Kuvira! My guess is that it is because she is selling, to people like Bolin, peace and order. She makes it seem like she's helping people without her real goals being obvious to everyone, specially for someone who's always been as naive as Bolin.
- I think that Su was against Kuvira's endgame and methods and believes this is dangerous for Zaofu and it could end up in another war. Remember her last season lashing out against the Earth Queen's excesses, same thing applies here. That's why she feels betrayed by her son going with her and Bolin too.
- Prince Wu was okay, reminded me a little of Sokka, I felt him like a mix of Sokka and Varrick... and clearly not fit to rule a kingdom, hence people preferring to go with a stronger figure like Kuvira.


- Korra, Earthbending fights! After three years hasn't recovered her physical form! And I think she has quit being the Avatar.

]

[Mara]

Prince Wu looks like a cross between Abed Nadir and Emperor Kuzco.

[Philip J. Fry]

Prince Wu looks like a cross between Abed Nadir and Emperor Kuzco.

Ha!

[Philip J. Fry]

"Good to see you again Twinkletoes"

God, what an amazing episode.

[Mara]

This was lovely, lovely, lovely.

You wouldn't think an animated children's show would tackle PTSD, let alone with a compassion and nuance that we're seeing here. Poor, poor Korra.

[Philip J. Fry]

This was lovely, lovely, lovely.

You wouldn't think an animated children's show would tackle PTSD, let alone with a compassion and nuance that we're seeing here. Poor, poor Korra.

I know! Although, being fair, I've thought both Avatar:TLA and The Legend of Korra are adult shows masquerading as children's shows.
But yeah, such a beautiful way to explore it. And gorgeous-looking too!!

[

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]

[Wryan]

While I was super excited to see [

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Toph

], I got even more excited when I realized that it almost certainly means we'll see [

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a showdown between Toph and Kuvira

] at some point. I hope so.

[Philip J. Fry]

The Coronation:
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- Oh, man! Really, Philece Sampler has nailed Toph to perfection. The inflections, the tone, the attitude, this woman really studied Jessie Flower and really, I hadn't realized how much I missed Toph until seeing her, well, being Toph, being her wisecracking, tossing Korra like a rag doll over and over or just being plain awesome, she proves once again she's the best.
- Korra still has mercury? Who could've thought, and even more, I loved the question Toph raised... does Korra, deep down, refuse to be the avatar anymore?
- The Earth Empire... yeah, no, yeah... heil Kuvira.
- And now they're going after Zaofu... war!
- Zhu Li apparently can talk. Yup. And Varrick looks so silly with those goggles. What will he do with that spirit plant?
- "Boss, girlfriend... same thing. I love Eska.
- Wu is still an idiot but he was funny today, specially when he sent that kid away to take the fake crown and staff.
- Bolin and Mako... enemies!!

]


Great episode and [

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Toph

] is still the best.

[Philip J. Fry]

The Calling:
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- This episode was just so funny, I mean, Meelo at the beginning just stealing the show and apparently picking a trick or two from his grunkle Sokka. But with more artistic ability. And Jinora just being so... Tenzin. And then Ikki took over...
- Ikki having conversations with her captors and getting their help by being just flat out adorable and friendly was awesome. I really loved Ikki finally doing something besides the fast talking comic relief.
- I love how the relationship between the three airbending children kinda follows and builds up after their mini arcs at the beginning of book 2, specially how it's put into light how Jinora and Meelo make Ikki feel pushed aside. I could suddenly see why did she decide to leave on that episode and have the tea party with the baby bison.
- I want a spin-off series with Toph and Meelo having all kinds of crazy adventures and/or solving crimes, beating up bad guys and farting in their faces!!
- Although the children where amazing, the heart of the episode was Korra, she and Toph just have some incredible scenes, one of them is how Toph dissects the three main villains of the show and in a way their fandoms. From day one every bad guy has shown some good intentions, some good side, sometimes even sparking strong debates (and sometimes even hatedom towards our good guys!) without seeing the methods they use. It's good to have equality, it's good to be connected with our spiritual side (or even better, our beliefs), it's good to have freedom and it's good to find order, but you can't have only one of those without the orders, without thinking of the consequences, without empathy towards our surrounding fellows, when we don't we fall out of balance, the world falls out of balance. If Korra learns this, and spreads the message, the world can be a better place and if we pick up the same message, we can hope for a better future.
- And Korra finally letting go and metalbending the poison was a great scene, a perfect metaphor for moving on.
- Oh, and I forgot, Kuvira is going to Zaofu. WAR!!!!!

]
Guess I got rambling. Loved this episode and this season is on course towards something truly special.

[Mara]

I'm not crying YOU'RE CRYING.

[Philip J. Fry]

Enemy at the Gates:

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- HOLY SHIT VAATU'S BEAM OUT OF VERRICK'S MACHINE!!! THIS THING TOTALLY IS THIS WORLD'S EQUIVALENT OF THE ATOMIC BOMB!!!
- Zhu Li was so cool in that mecha-tank. Also, I don't think she pledged allegiance to Kuvira out of spite to Verrick (she totally loves him) or for being evil, it's more out trying to save herself and maybe protect Verrick.
- Mechatanks!!!
- I'll call this, Hiroshi Sato will help Asami in something important, maybe to stop Verrick's device.
- Wouldn't it be cool if Bolin is brainwashed in similar fashion to the way the Dai Li did Jet? What if Kuvira is employing the Dai Li in those camps?
- Suyin is going to try to assassinate Kuvira. Awesome! Also, war!!
- Korra feels so much like Aang in this episode, trying to avoid conflicts, trying to be neutral... I don't think it's gonna work.

]

[Philip J. Fry]

Who wants a hoodie?

[Philip J. Fry]

Reunion.
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- Bolin and Varrick make quite an awesome duo, the part where they're figuring out who carries who is comedy gold and no way Varrick doesn't totally love Zhu Li.
- That lunch between Korra, Mako and Asami just felt a little like a shipping war. And it's understandable why Mako felt like he felt. So much awkward.
- Damn it Mako, you had one job!!
- Ethnic cleansing, holocaust parallels... yup, sexy Hitler. And if it weren't enough, I love how Varrick convinced those guards to let them pass, Schindler's List style.
- Spirit vine powers!!! That scene on the train felt like something coming out of a spy thriller.
- "ALL HAIL THE GREAT UNITER!"
- More cool mecha fights!!
- Did Varrick just made a Tesla coil to deactivate all those mechas?
- Great moment when Bolin goes back to help those prisoners.
- Oh my god Wu, asking out Korra?
- OMG Grandma Yin, she's always hilarious. She better share more scenes with Wu.
- Holy shit, they're in the swamp!!! C'MON TOPH, HELP!!!!

]

[Philip J. Fry]

Remebrances:
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It was ok when people were calling out Mako ("Just like your grandfather!"), the Korra part was just, well, a rehashing of the conversation with Toph in The Calling and the part with Varrick telling the story aproached "Ember Island Players" level of brilliance. I wish Varrick would've told the three stories.
Also, I lost it with the Zaheer, Vaatu, Amon, Unalaq phone call. It even seemed at times as something taken out from Beavis & Butthead at times. That was amazing.

]
All and all though, this is probably the weakest Korra episode since Peacekeepers.

[Philip J. Fry]

Well this was a rather unfortunate turn of an episode, being a clips show, but it was still done pretty well and flew by. They managed to include some great humor as well ([

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Mako being taken to task for being a douche; the four-way phone call of villainy

]), plus it reminded me how much of the so-so Book 2 I had forgotten. The creators wrote a tumblr post talking about why it went down like this (short version: budget), and while that makes me pretty sad, I think they did about as good and creative a job with it as they could given the circumstances.

Also, there's a nice throwaway line that Varrick has when Bolin sobs about all the bad stuff that's happened/that he did: "Na na ba ba ba...you're emphasizing the wrong story beats." Kind of a simple line, but it speaks volumes about the way perception can mess with us and keep us seeing the worse instead of the better.

Agreed with the last beat. I think this is one of the main reasons a lot of people kinda jumped ship on season 2 (granted, the first 6 episodes are weak), instead of seeing a show on a rough patch, but that was still good and had the potential to right it's wrongs and become something special, people just went with a Korra being unlikable, Mako being a douche (even pinning for freaking Tahno) and the show not being Avatar: The Last Airbender.

[Qrazy]

That ep was weak as is this season. There just isn't a strong villain this time around. The introspective stuff with Korra is good, the rest is mediocre.

[Philip J. Fry]

And... Korra is back on TV.


Nick, you are drunk.