Great Villains
Book 2 suffered for lack of a compelling, balanced villain. Unalaq was cartoonish and had no depth. Book 3 gave us what Book 2 was missing by delivering in the villain department, four-fold. The Red Lotus was a dynamic team of villains whose powers were unique and hella scary, and whose mission to overthrow tyrannical kings and queens captured the audience's sympathy just enough to clothe them in shades of gray. The writers showed how incompetent President Raiko and awful the Earth Queen were (and how dire the inequality was in Ba Sing Se), which gave the villain's anarchic goal just enough credence to make the goal noble, in a way, if misguided.
What's more, the writers managed to make the Red Lotus . . . likable, and surprisingly human. Their relationships with each other were surprisingly tender and often-times funny (such as . . . all of Ghazan's lines, pretty much -- "Guess he doesn't need a ride!"). The first time we see the four villains together, P'Li and Zaheer kiss, and Ghazan says something like, "Really, guys? Here?" And the last scene that P'Li and Zaheer have alone in the finale hints at a backstory filled with tragedy, and love forged therein. I would have loved to see more scenes like that. However crazy Zaheer's anarchic goals were, the audience still felt his pain when P'Li went to her death -- and immediately understood that she had been his sole "earthly tether." These great villains -- and the initial mystery behind their motives -- anchored the entire season.
Character Development . . . Finally
I thought Book 2 did a good job developing its adult characters. Some of my favorite Book 2 scenes explored the dynamic between Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi. But in many ways, the New Team Avatar was left behind in the character development department.
In Book 3, the New Team Avatar got moments in the spotlight:
- Mako reconnected with family, and showed maturity in giving Grandma Yin his red scarf. He also showed his detective skills in figuring out that something was up with Aiwei and deducing that scuff marks in his apartment meant that the bookcase could move. Oh, and he straight up killed someone. (Shocking! . . . get it?)
- Bolin continued serving as the series' comic relief -- mostly effectively, although occasionally it felt forced and tonally jarring (e.g., the bird calls in the Finale). But the show also explored Bolin's insecurities: (1) first, in his approach to women (although this seems at odds with Book 1 Bolin, who was a confident ladies man), and (2) second, regarding his bending abilities -- which culminated in his discovery that he can lavabend. He also had a powerfully emotional (if corny) line in "The Ultimatum" about how home is where your family is -- very well delivered by P.J. Byrne. I wish Bolin had more of those quiet moments.
- Asami revealed that she is actually MacGyver: she busted out of her restraints on the Cheap-O Cabbage Corp. airship and built a sandsailer out of scrap metal[, a rubber band, and a swiss army knife]. She also got a chance to show how cool and caring she is through her friendship with Korra, which has been really nice to watch. Asami's ability to move on from the Mako love triangle -- and even bond with Korra over how awkward Mako was acting -- was refreshing to see from a female character. The show put in the work through the season to build the Asami-Korra relationship, such that the payoff in the finale was big: "I want you to know that I'm here for you. If you ever want to talk, or anything . . . "
- Korra got some nice character moments with Tenzin, showing the evolution of their relationship: she actually sat down to meditate and listened to Tenzin's advice; she later returned the favor by counseling him on training the airbenders. Otherwise, Korra was largely out of the action this season until the endgame, when she demonstrated her selflessness with her willingness to lay down her life for the fledgling air nation. But the most interesting part of where they took Korra this season was in the Finale. First, Korra's hallucinations in the cave while being poisoned were fascinating, and at least attempted to tie Books 1-3 together thematically. And second, the finale ended not with triumph, but uncertainty . . . and depression. The show left Korra in a really interesting emotional place, and I can't wait to see where they take her in Book 4.
- Tenzin and Bumi got some good brotherly screentime in "The Original Airbenders" -- although I do think Tenzin regressed somewhat from Book 1 Tenzin (i.e., Tenzin already have learned patience from having to teach Korra airbending).
- Kya and Tonraq got some good fight scenes, though not much else beyond that.
- And as if Lin Beifong weren't cool enough from Book 1, we got a great sub-plot featuring Lin and her half-sister Su that developed them both (and got us another peek at Adult Toph!), explored the Beifong family history and dynamics, and revealed how Lin got her scars.
Finally, Jinora. I love her. She is awesome. Her spirit powers are awesome. She has grown from a little girl into a young woman -- and now an airbending master -- over the course of three books. Her finale line "We have power together" gave me chills, and the scene where she got her tattoos (and looked like Aang) was incredibly moving. The show has done a great job exploring her relationship with Tenzin. Bravo.
Despite Book 3's admirable efforts at developing its characters, though, the Legend of Korra as a series still suffers from having too many characters. As a result, I doubt the show will ever reach the heights of character development that the original series did because of limited screentime and heightened competition. (Alas, we'll never get a character arc as epic as Zuko's!) But Book 3's efforts to give the characters room to grow and interact did not go unnoticed!
Animation and Music
The animation on both Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra has always been top-notch. But the animation this season was simply off the charts. The backgrounds were rendered beautifully (e.g., the cityscape of Zaofu). The bending battles were better -- and more innovative -- than anything we'd seen on the show previously (e.g., Tenzin v. Zaheer, Lin v. Su, that fight in Zaofu when the Red Lotus tried to kidnap Korra). And the character designs -- particularly of the season's villains -- were unique and memorable. Paired with Jeremy Zuckerman and TheTrackTeam's amazing soundtrack? And the show is a visual and aural feast.
Pacing and Plotting
Certain Korra reviewers (::cough:: Doug Walker ::cough::) complained that the pace of Book 3 was too slow, that not enough was happening. I completely disagree.
The season started beautifully (and fittingly): with the return of airbenders to the world, and the quest to locate more airbenders. One Red Lotus member was introduced with each prison escape, and even though they were far away and their motives were unknown, the danger was palpable given their uniquely awesome bending skills and dazzling prison escapes. We met the unpleasant Earth Queen and discovered that a plot was afoot and that her city was even more socially unequal than before.
And then, somehow, most of the storylines introduced in the Book got connected together by the end: the Earth Queen, the return of the airbenders, the Red Lotus, Jinora's tattoo request, even Mako's suspicion of Kai. Each seemingly disparate plotline dovetailed into the other.
Ultimately, the sloooow reveal of the Red Lotus's purpose and the extent of their menace allowed the characters room to develop, which in turn raised the stakes (and our fear for their safety) when shit finally got real. In fact, I thought the pacing and plotting in this season was the best of the three Korra books. Book 1 unfolded at breakneck pace; Book 2 tried to do too much with too little time. This Book let the tension slowly build while giving the characters time to interact and just be . . . themselves.
Finale
Oddly enough, the finale to this amazing season did not quite hit the same emotional note for me that the Book 2 finale did. When Korra's connection to the past avatars was destroyed in Book 2: Spirits, I was in tears, and completely emotionally shattered. And when Korra got into the Tree of Time and connected with Cosmic Korra to the soaring tunes of Jeremy Zuckerman's soundtrack, thus showing how far she'd come in her spiritual journey, I was bawling.
But in Book 3, I felt somewhat distant from the finale. While I liked the concept they were going for -- that Korra was willing to lay down her life for the fledgling air nation, newly reborn, for the sake of balance in the world -- I didn't buy the whole premise of Korra being forced into a "choice" of either turn herself over or have the air nation destroyed. (Like, really? It's only four bad guys. They are hella scary and really skilled, but really? It's only four guys. How many masterful benders are there amongst the good guys?)
I also think Korra's showdown with Superman Zaheer had a very different (and much darker) feel than Aang's showdown with Ozai in the Avatar series finale. The latter grew out of the work of three seasons of Aang learning each element, and the audience couldn't help but burst with pride at seeing him go. Korra busting out of her chains was a force of nature -- a combination of pure animalism and survival instinct. Her fight with Zaheer came out of a place of deep pain and rage, and left her broken. It was hard to watch, and also hard to connect to that place of darkness.
That's not to say I have to be moved to tears to enjoy an episode; I did enjoy the finale a lot -- I'm just saying it didn't personally resonate with me and my feels the way Book 2's finale did. Still, the Book 3 finale was technically brilliant, and extremely well executed:
- The action sequences were hands-down the best that either Avatar or Korra had ever delivered: Tonraq/Chained Korra v. Zaheer; Korra v. Superman Zaheer somersaulting through the air; Mako vs. Ming-hua and the latter's electrifying end, Bolin v. Ghazan lava on lava, Lin/Su taking down P'Li, and Jinora leading the airbenders in generating that thematically-fitting massive tornado thing.
- The scene where Korra hallucinated Amon, Unalaq, and Vaatu was deliciously creepy, and an interesting window into Korra's mind.
- Jinora getting her airbending tattoos to the sound of wind chimes (with Tenzin's narration!) was an incredibly moving and beautiful scene.
- And the way the season ended with Korra weary and broken emotionally was intriguing and left me wanting Book 4 to arrive already.
IMHO, between the character growth for Korra and the rest of New Team Avatar, the compelling villains, and the comfortable plotting, Book 3 was the best Korra season to date. Still not better than ATLA Book 2: Earth or ATLA Book 3: Fire, but . . . up there. Good job, Bryke.
So . . . when's Book 4 coming out? And can I stomach watching anything else until then . . . ?
