“The Legend of Korra, Book 4: Balance”

Date: February 18, 2021

Music Video of the Day: Happy 18th Day of Black History Month!

Interstellar News: I was totally going to watch some Trek tonight, but other things cropped up… including a migraine. Thankfully, I’m now better and hope to be back to Trekking tomorrow.

TL;DR: Book 1 was all about Korra learning to airbend in order to fully become the Avatar. Book 2 was all about Korra connecting with the Spirit World. Book 3 focused on the Red Lotus and what they wanted with Korra. Book 4 skips ahead to three years after the events of the Book 3 finale. Tenzin and the airbenders try to keep the peace, Kuvira is piecing together the Earth Kingdom by force, Mako has become the bodyguard of Prince Wu, Bolin and Varrick are working for Kuvira, Asami has revived her business, and Korra is trying to find herself after years of physical therapy and healing after Zaheer’s attack. Eventually everyone realizes that Kuvira is power hungry and crazy and they spend the season trying to stop her from taking over Republic City and Zaofu. There is lots of awesome bending, some really deep topics tackled, Toph makes an appearance, and eventually Korra completes her circle and rides off into the spirit portal with Asami.

“I needed to understand what real suffering was, so I could become more compassionate to others.“: This season was an absolute roller coaster. The three year jump means that we spend a bit of time finding out what each main character did over that time. Korra cuts her hair and spends time undercover, only to run into Toph and find out she still has poison in her… and as a counselor I absolutely loved their time together. Katara and Toph obviously had much different approaches to helping Korra heal, and that’s what counseling is all about, finding the thing you need that helps you over the hill. I also love all of the growing up that most of the characters do, even in little ways. Meelo has a brilliant moment with paint and is “man enough” to admit his farts cannot be contained. Bolin totally fanboys over Toph and admits to everyone how wrong he was and continues to do what he can to make up for being a colossal ass. Mako and Bolin’s family are fantastic, especially Grandma, and I didn’t mind the clip show episode as much because they made it fun with the animation.

As this was the last season, I do like how everything was mostly wrapped up but also left open for more story. They deal with the surface level of a dictatorship, but also show how Kuvira could bend to a greater power. Korra finishes dating everyone on Team Avatar by taking Asami on “vacation” to the spirit world, Republic City now has a spirit portal and needs to rebuild after the assault by Kuvira, and Varrick and Zhu Li do the thing! Prince Wu also has a great evolution and eventually gets his badger-moles. There is love and loss and ultimately an open path for Korra to be the Avatar she has always wanted to be. I can’t compare this to Avatar: The Last Airbender, because it’s such a different world and journey. Korra seems much more powerful than Aang, but she’s also much more headstrong in some ways. I hate that Aang didn’t really get to live as long as the rest of the OG Team Avatar, but it was wonderful that Korra was able to meet with them all and receive their wisdom. I really love this universe and really wish the live action film wasn’t such a piece of shit. Overall, I full recommend watching Avatar: The Last Airbender followed by The Legend of Korra. The episodes are short and a lot of fun, for a “kids” show.

TA Out!