re: Avatar: The Legend of Korra: Book II Season Long Thread

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This we just a way to keep it kid friendly, I can't really blame them for that. The power jumps in the original Avatar were pretty well timed and logical for the most part.

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They've had a murder/suicide on screen and killed Zhao and Jet on screen as well. They could have gotten away with killing Ozai, as Korra just did with killing Unalaq. That was not why they didn't kill Ozai, but because it would have been character regression on Aang's part. The world demanded that Aang kill Ozai, but Aang really couldn't give into it and be the man he was always destined to be. In order to defeat Ozai, Aang more had to fully realize and accept who he is rather than being forced to do things or run away from them as he had in the past. Taking Ozai's bending required him to be even more resolute in his resolve and reinforcing his spirit. I at first thought it was a cop out too, but when you think about it, it was Aang's finest and defining moment as a character, even if his resolve not to kill others would directly bite Korra in the arse a few generations later.

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The very end of the episode where she just goes Avatar and fixes all the issues was lame, I'll give you that. But the rest of the finale with the showdown and the boat blowing up after I thought was very well done and superior to what we got in this finale.

If this was the case it should be mentioned, as it is it's just a whole lot of WTF that makes no sense.

Anyway, the Wan flashback episodes were amazing, and Bolin and Varrick were awesome this season, but this was easily the worst arc for me.

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I'm going to write a longer explanation later, but this season did exactly what it needed to do in order to build Korra and Tenzin's character. The season is basically entirely about Korra's and Tenzin's lack of spiritual connection, and how they needed to build it in completely reevaluating themselves to become the people they were destined to be. I at first didn't like the Spirit battle at the end, but like Sozin's Comet, the more I think about it, the better it becomes.

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Unalaq (in his full form) can increase the darkness of spirits around the world, so yes he can send them out to do his bidding. Korra is able to the opposite, but Unalaq was much to powerful at that time to be anywhere close to him.

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But how did they do his bidding before his final form? When he was taking over the whole sect of the water tribe?

OK, so here is my official review for the finale and the season at large.

Lets face it, before the Avatar Wan plotline, this season wasn't all so great. They fricked up a ton with everything, from the plots, to the characters, to basically everything. But then the season made a complete U-Turn at that episode. Before that, we really had no idea what the season was about and had to play it by ear, but once we knew the stakes, the season took off and never slowed down.

So the plotline seemed to be Korra vs Unalaq... but really it was sort of Unalaq vs Tenzin. If you think about it, Unalaq is the absolute antithesis of Tenzin, even more so than Korra or her father. Unalaq is comfortable with himself and spiritually competent. Tenzin is incredibly uncomfortable with himself, spiritually incompetent, and has spent his entire life forcing himself into someone he is not. Unalaq is everything to Korra that Tenzin wasn't, but he never gave a damn about her, while Tenzin sacrificed everything for her. Tenzin's failure as a spiritual mentor is ironically defined by his child, and he truly loves his family and overcomes his issues with them. Unalaq doesn't give a single frick about his own family and sees them as mere bodyguards and fodder when Vaatu rises, and completely betrayed his own brother and niece. There isn't a single place where one succeeds that the other is an utter failure at.

But that's the point of the season: Tenzin's and Korra's spiritual growth. Tenzin must let go of his forced baggage by his father, and Korra must let go of her insecurities. It's a bit more obvious with Tenzin due to the fog, but Korra's ascension serves her character as well. Korra should not have defeated Unalaq with her bending, but purely her spirit. She was severely lacking at this, and quite frankly I disliked her in the first half of the season, but she utterly redeemed herself as a character. Beating Unalaq without Rava in her own spiritual form was clearly the only way to go. It was perfect the more you think about how Korra should have defeated him.

For the rest, the fights were awesome, the music was great, and the animation was incredible.

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And yeah, to rank the characters for the series so far:

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I'm assuming you mean just for the Korra series on this one? Because yeah, Korra belongs nowhere near a top 5 for the entire series.

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And as for ranking of the seasons so far:

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For me it would be:

1. Earth
2. Fire
3. Air
4A. Spirits
4B. Water

Outside of the Wan flashbacks I really feel no desire to rewatch any of this season.

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Of course. If I were to rank the characters of the total universe:

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Zukko, Iroh, Sokka, Toph, and Varrick would probably be my top 5, with Tenzin as HM, so pretty much with you there. Hopefully we see more of Varrick in the next season.

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Sit on it. I thought the same thing on Fire, but it was great on a reevaluation. The season was about Korra growing as a character in her spirit, and while it got off to a shaky start, it finished gloriously IMO.

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See, I thought it started and ended badly, so don't really see my opinions changing all that much. They did the growth with Tenzin very well over the course of the season. Korra however was extremely sloppy and all over the place, and her sudden spiritual growth was mostly Deus ex machina to me. More of a "well, we need her to power up and beat the bad guy now" type move. Of course, I haven't had a huge urge to rewatch either Korra season, though I liked the last season much more than this one.

Fire is pretty much more of a 1B for me, my favorite episodes from the entire series are form that section.

It just made the avatar kind of special that only she could connect to the spirits or her previous lives. Now she's just someone who can bend all 4 elements

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It just made the avatar kind of special that only she could connect to the spirits or her previous lives

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Can't she just go to the spirit world to speak with them, or they leave the spirit world to find her and speak with her now that the portal is open?

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Can't she just go to the spirit world to speak with them, or they leave the spirit world to find her and speak with her now that the portal is open?

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I think she could go speak with them and find them in the Spirit World, but I don't think the deceased will be able to leave the Spirit World without a physical body.

I actually don't get a lot of what happened with the last few episodes and I think I know all the rules.

Tenzien couldn't get into the spirit world one way, but could get into the portal?

I thought the portal was as special as the world itself.

I don't get how Korra got Avatar powers back without Rava if that wasn't Rava she refused with. How did Rava come back though if Rava was killed? Did she rediscover "good" with the light that was brought to her from the spirit world by Tenzien's daughter's spirit?

It was all confusing.