Legend of Korra: Book Three Finale Review: Korra Rolls On

[xaszatm]

Not really my point. My point is that there are dozens of similarly lethal poisons, some that are non-metallic. And there's no indication that the Avatar State could ONLY be forced through use of mercury poisoning, since the Avatar State triggers from all sorts of potentially lethal trauma. The use of a metallic poison was therefore a bad choice when their enemies had metal benders among them.

The notion that "they wouldn't suspect it" is honestly a pretty poor lampshade when you consider that there are non-metallic poisons just as lethal that would've not only done the job, but also would have been impossible to remove after they gave it to her. And the nearest water bending healer capable of stopping a deadly poison was much too far away for them to get Korra there in time. So basically, the Red Lotus doomed themselves for no real reason.

When do you think they made that poison? If the Red Lotus waited until AFTER they captured the Avatar to make the poison, then they have more stupidity problems than just making a metallic poison after encountering metal benders. It's far more likely they made that poison before they assaulted the Northern Air Temple. Hell, they probably started way before the assaulted the Earth Queen. And that many episodes back, metallic poison would make sense. The Red Lotus can't be too sure who will be joining Korra when they pull off the trade. They probably thought that waterbenders would be joining them over metalbenders and choose a Metallic poison. After all, Korra is Water Tribe.

Plus, I'm not sure the Red Lotus had a proper grasp on how powerful Lin and Suyin were as metalbenders, while you can say they were trained by Toph, all that says is they're powerful, it doesn't provide a measure of their strength. They probably thought Suyin wasn't powerful to extract the poison, that and he didn't find out on them finding hat kind of poison was used on Korra. If they just knew Korra was poisoned, they would have used waterbending which would have done nothing.

The only water bender with them was Kya, who was unconscious and far too injured to help anyone. And Katara lives half a world away. Had they used any other non-metallic poison, Korra would have been dead. Instead, they used a metallic poison, which effectively doomed their plan to failure if the metal benders got to her in time and figured out that she was poisoned with metal.

How was the Red Lotus supposed to know they would be bringing Metalbenders over Waterbenders? Remember, they would have had to make this poison way before they would have fought the Metalbenders.

When is Zaheer ever good? Maybe the last few minutes of the last episode was over the top, but when is he ever seen to be a better airbender? Did you not see the fight with Tenzin? What is Zaheer doing during that fight? Running and whenever he tries to hit Tenzin, he completely misses. Tenzin is repeatably landing blows during the fight. The one thing Zaheer is good at in airbending is dodging, which is already one of the most basic tenants of airbending.

Watch it again. Zaheer is indeed clearly outmatched, but he lands hits on Tenzin multiple times and is clearly doing well enough to demonstrate a degree of skill that he shouldn't yet have. Again, yes, Tenzin is clearly winning their fight, but it is not as one-sided as you seem to remember it being. Probably because Tenzin recovers rather quickly from most of Zaheer's hits.

No, I watched again...and he never got a single hit. When Zaheer trades three blows at him on those blue roofs, Tenzin was redirecting the movement and wasn't hit. Before he gets hit by the combustion blast, Zaheer tries three more times. Tenzin either blocks it with ease or dodges it. The only time I could see you say Zaheer hit Tenzin is when is flipped over him. So 1 hit on Tenzin vs the 5 times Tenzine hits Zaheer. Not really toe to toe.

Also, note how when Zaheer fights compared to Tenzin, he really isn't Airbending that well. Zaheer is using his Airbending to boost his own martial arts, enhancing his jumps as strides. Tenzin literally floats with ease while Zaheer must jump from roof to roof to reach the top. Zaheer really isn't a great Airbender physically, he's just using airbending to enhance is already formidable martial arts.

Healing wounds and recovering from them are two different things. Muscles need rest and physical training in order to guarantee proper movement. Even then, some people might opt to use things like crutches and wheelchairs because they don't want to stress their muscles. Besides, I don't remember healing curing the aftereffects of repairing broken bones and muscles.

As previously noted, healing can indeed cure broken bones, if indeed that's what Kya suffers from (it's never explicitly said, though, so that's still presumptuous). There is pretty much no reason for Kya to still need a crutch two weeks later. I'm more flexible with Korra's state since they're clearly going for a "mental scarring" dynamic, which would explain her general "out-of-it-ness", but her needing a wheelchair also seems pretty unusual since the physical damage should long have been fixed by now.

When Avatar Aang was struck by lightning, it is noted that multiple weeks has passed until he wakes up. Even then, Korra is required to give Aang multiple healing sessions and Aang can't move without having a lot of pain. Keep in mind, that Korra is using Sacred Water, which should be even more powerful than regular water. If it takes multiple weeks for Aang to recover enough that he can be conscious after being healed by sacred water, it should come to no surprise that Katara's in a wheelchair two weeks after being poisoned badly.

It's not that they "don't hold water" (they clearly do, as do many of the complaints that spawned from seasons 1 and 2) and more that people are perhaps a bit excessively defensive of this series. Many of these complaints would probably not exist if not for one simple fact: this series doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's a series built on top of a pre-existing world with pre-existing lore. So whether the writers like it or not, they need to be consistent with that lore.

I don't *want* to dislike Korra. But the series has shown a casual and thorough disregard for its roots that is impossible for me to overlook. There are things the new series does well, but they keep getting overshadowed by things that the series does not do well. I think perhaps the greatest problem I have with this series is that we're now three seasons in, and I can't say that the title "The Legend of Korra" fits. I mean, let's look at her accomplishments:
[ul]Season 1: She loses her bending to Amon, and scraps by with a win against him by suddenly developing air bending. His actual defeat comes not by her beating him, but through the (accidental) revelation of his own lies.
Season 2: Through her own stubbornness, she actually aids the villain in activating Harmonic Convergence and is thus partially culpable for her loss of her connection to the previous Avatars. With the aid of Jinora Jesus, she gains the power to giant-monster-fight with Unalaq/Vaatu and win.
Season 3: She struggles to fight against four skilled benders who are obsessed with bringing chaos to the world, and ends up needing her allies to defeat all of the bad guys for her.[/ul]

She....really hasn't done anything significant herself. Her allies helped her do pretty much everything she's done so far, and she's been increasingly less relevant to the point where it almost seems like the writers intended to minimize her usefulness these last three seasons, just to plant that seed of an idea that perhaps the world no longer needs the Avatar. By comparison, Aang effectively went from the last of a dying race of benders to a relatively wise world leader who formed the backbone of a major rebellion that ended a century-long war. He changed the world in a huge way. And Korra's....really not done that, beyond the release of the spirits into the world (and we've yet to see or understand the full breadth of what consequences that may bring).

Actually, it was said in an interview by IGN that that was kind of the point. All seasons are trying to push this idea that the Avatar is no longer needed. Apparently, the 4th season will fight this idea in full force.

 

[Kajin]

This is easy enough to explain. Mako is a good guy. He didn't use lightning bending before because that's a pretty fatal move and, because he considers himself a good person, would only ever use it as a weapon of last resort in the most dire of circumstances. From what I recall, this is only the second time he's ever used it on a person in the whole series, and both times were when he was pushed up against a wall and had no choice. First time he was being blood bent by Amon. Second time he was being overwhelmed by a crazy water bender with no backup and no other way to counter or fight back effectively. Less character stupidity and more character trait. If you're the kind of person that thinks lightning should be the first answer to all problems, the cops probably want to have a word with you.

And while that character trait is admirable, it becomes a significant hindrance and veers into abject stupidity when you refuse to even consider a potentially fatal technique against someone who absolutely has no qualms with killing you.

Character trait or character flaw, it's still a part of his character. Mako just isn't the kind of person who possesses a genuine killer instinct. It's only stupid from a purely logical standpoint (kill all my enemies so they're not a problem later). From a moral standpoint, it makes perfect sense (I'm not a bad guy and I do not wish to become a bad guy. So I will fight this bad guy to the best of my ability, but hold back any potentially fatal punches unless my hand is forced on the matter).

And the only real counter a waterbender could have against a lightning attack was if they threw the water away from their bodies and formed it into a wall between themselves and the attack, which Ming Hua didn't have the time to do because Mako's attack came way too fast for her to react. She couldn't use the lightning redirect attack, either. Even though the style is based on observing the waterbending style, it's still very much a firebending technique. Something she'd be unable to do since she's not a firebender.

Aye, but my point is less that she couldn't use that particular technique, and more a general disgust with the very notion that, in over a hundred years of fighting against fire benders, not one water bender came up with a way to counter lightning. That's extremely implausible, IMO, given how much bending has clearly developed since then.

It's as plausible as the lore of the world allows. If no such counter exists, it's either because the counter is impossible to develop or no one has been placed in the right circumstances to develop it just yet. The only known counter to lightning bending was developed by a firebending master who was well versed in the use of the advanced forms, including lightning bending. It stands to reason that the waterbenders, having little to no ability to train against such a technique would be unable to perform an appropriate counter and die due to the general lethality of the attack. No real counter can be developed because the only practice is to fight a lightning bender in earnest combat and hope whatever you try works. Or, more likely, no real counter can be developed against lightning bending because no counter exists within the sphere of influence that is waterbending. We've certainly never seen any waterbenders countering lightning. What proof is there that such a technique exists, other than "because it's fiction and the writer can say so"?

 

[xaszatm]

No, I watched again...and he never got a single hit. When Zaheer trades three blows at him on those blue roofs, Tenzin was redirecting the movement and wasn't hit. Before he gets hit by the combustion blast, Zaheer tries three more times. Tenzin either blocks it with ease or dodges it. The only time I could see you say Zaheer hit Tenzin is when is flipped over him. So 1 hit on Tenzin vs the 5 times Tenzine hits Zaheer. Not really toe to toe.

Also, note how when Zaheer fights compared to Tenzin, he really isn't Airbending that well. Zaheer is using his Airbending to boost his own martial arts, enhancing his jumps as strides. Tenzin literally floats with ease while Zaheer must jump from roof to roof to reach the top. Zaheer really isn't a great Airbender physically, he's just using airbending to enhance is already formidable martial arts.

I think you and I view the fight rather differently. I'll have to go back and watch it again but I'm pretty certain it's not the Cena/Lesnar one-sided match that people keep insisting it was.

And even if it was, he has talent enough as an airbender to beat several other individuals in a head-to-head fight, including multiple expert metal benders, countless members of the White Lotus, Tonraq, and the Avatar herself (more than once), and also talent enough to be one of the first air benders in centuries to fly without a glider. He is not a poor air bender by any stretch of the term, and I don't know why people keep acting like he is. Hell, it took the combined might of every available air bender (including Jinora, whose skill level was unarguably akin to that of a master) just to pull him out of the sky at the end. He had way more skill and power as an air bender than people choose to credit him for, and none of it was well-explained or rationalized.

But how much of that badassery can be contributed to his airbending and not to his fighting skills? Keep in mind that Zaheer was locked in a high security prison long before he had airbending powers. Clearly, the White Lotus feared this guy before he could bend. Also, when I say he is a bad airbender, keep in mind that I'm not talking about his skills in fighting or his spiritual power, I'm talking about how is fighting style really isn't an airbending style at all.

Airbending is all about redirection. This is why it takes Tenzin so long to land blows and why he dances around Zaheer. The martial art is all about dodging attacks and striking when your opponents make a mistake. Zaheer is a brute when airbending, much like Korra. He uses air to slam people into things. He attacks aggressively. He has a very violent fighting style, which contrasts against the philosophies of air culture. Airbending isn't just about the ability to manipulate air, after all.

On the other hand, you could say he gains that much skill due to his belief in Guru Laghima.

[img=http://i.imgur.com/0lmVOCo.gif]http://i.imgur.com/0lmVOCo.gif[/img]

When Avatar Aang was struck by lightning, it is noted that multiple weeks has passed until he wakes up. Even then, Korra is required to give Aang multiple healing sessions and Aang can't move without having a lot of pain. Keep in mind, that Korra is using Sacred Water, which should be even more powerful than regular water. If it takes multiple weeks for Aang to recover enough that he can be conscious after being healed by sacred water, it should come to no surprise that Katara's in a wheelchair two weeks after being poisoned badly.

You mixed up Korra and Katara, but that's hardly a major thing as I know what you meant.

Yes, it takes Aang multiple weeks to recover (from being shot with a lightning bolt through his chest). Korra was poisoned, and the poison was removed from her body wholesale. There were no visible signs of physical damage beyond the blows that Zaheer dealt to her, and those are clearly heal-able. The physical damage should have healed by now, if they made any effort to treat it at least. The mental trauma, I'll grant, probably not. But there's not much explanation for why she's basically unable to move at all.

There is no sign of external physical damage. Bottom line, any poison that stays within your system that long will start to screw you up physically. Remember that the poison is forcibly absorbed through the skin on the arms and legs. That right there is damaging your nerves, muscles, and blood system simply by force of entry. The physical damage is there, it's just internal. Damages to muscle, nerves, organs. Those types of things can heal naturally, but even when completely healed, the new muscle is still raw. It will incredibly painful to move and walk. So the wheelchair thing still makes sense from a physical standpoint.

 

[jamail77]

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I think you all need to watch this again:
Chakras are something inside all people of the Avatar universe and unlocking them all isn't just for the purpose of the Avatar as humanity itself predates the Avatar. It is stated unlocking all chakras gives one connection to the universe itself and eventually, possibly spiritual enlightenment.


To my detriment, I'm going to quote a wiki [http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Chakra] I am soon going to criticize

The main objective of opening the chakras is to detach one's soul from the world, so that, in the case of an Avatar, he or she would have free access to the cosmic powers at his or her disposal. However, Avatar Yangchen explained to Aang that the reason why the Avatar is a mortal being each time is that the Avatar must experience human life and emotions in order to understand how precious it is, so he or she will do anything to protect it, meaning that it would be never possible for an Avatar to truly detach him or herself from the world and thus open all the chakras.[8]
Guru Pathik stated that in order for the Avatar to control the Avatar Spirit, he/she must let go of every earthly attachment like loving someone. However, it is still possible to love someone while opening the Thought Chakra, as evidenced by the fact that both Avatar Kuruk and Avatar Roku demonstrated mastery over the Avatar State while being in love; Kuruk loved Ummi and Roku loved Ta Min.

There's also consideration given to whether the method to unlocking the 7th chakra is so literal since Avatars who clearly have earthly attachments mastered the Avatar State. I can't find where that possibility is discussed on the wiki, but basically there are a few possibilities.
1) One must be able to separate what is important in the moment. It is a temporary thing.
2) There is more than one way to unlock the 7th chakra.
3) It is completely literal. No Avatar can open all 7 chakras. That is why you never see an Avatar in the continuous Avatar State for extended periods of time beyond a few hours at best with the exception of Aang who was frozen, allowing it to hold.

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I'm going to try and be as nice as possible when saying this, but you come off to me as one of those hypocritical, the world is against me types. You tell people how rude they are being and then say rude things yourself hidden among the insults directed at the characters of the show and the writers. You respond that you answered the core of the best questions directed at you when you didn't. Meanwhile, while I admit, you have answered many people's questions satisfactorily the best questions directed at you, by far, are the ones you have not answered to their cores, only superficially at best. I know this not only because I have encountered people like this, both in forums and in real social interaction, but because I used to have moments like this when I was a different person. I don't know you, so I won't say you have cognitive dissonance and/or confirmation bias and/or selection bias or anything like that because people who act like this retreat further into their hole when being confronted by such accusations. All, I'll say is that I went to your profile and checked out your forum health meter and it is nearly at ban level. With all the different types of people from different backgrounds and opinions ganging up on you plus the forum health meter, I'd say you're not being attacked by mob mentality, you're in denial. I don't think it's right the way people responded to you, but at the same time you responded just as rudely a few times.

You know what, that came out bad anyway. I just couldn't think of a nicer way to say that. I'm sorry. Nonetheless, you bring up some good points. I'll give you that. I'll take a crack at addressing some that people haven't gotten to as satisfactorily as you're looking for. It's too annoying to re-look for certain quotes, so some may be addressed in the form of normal text.

First, your complaints about Jinora: It was already established she was well read. Taking that into account with the fact she actually saw the poison being readied, I'd think she could guess at it's metallic nature. Considering someone's life is on the line, Avatar or not, taking a gamble on it being metallic is better than nothing. I would certainly say, "It was shiny and gray. Maybe it's metal. It's all we got to go on to keep Korra alive." Just so you know I hated Jinora ex Machina Jesus in Book 2, but I thought how they used her here was just fine.

You know, if you are having this many problems, maybe this show is no longer for you. It is true that Korra has moved in a different direction than Last Airbender, and maybe it isn't what you are looking for. That's fine, it happens. But none of these points really hold any water and seem more and more like you are just looking for something to hate in this show.

[snip]

I don't *want* to dislike Korra. But the series has shown a casual and thorough disregard for its roots that is impossible for me to overlook. There are things the new series does well, but they keep getting overshadowed by things that the series does not do well. I think perhaps the greatest problem I have with this series is that we're now three seasons in, and I can't say that the title "The Legend of Korra" fits. I mean, let's look at her accomplishments:
[ul][snip]
Season 3: She struggles to fight against four skilled benders who are obsessed with bringing chaos to the world, and ends up needing her allies to defeat all of the bad guys for her.[/ul]

She....really hasn't done anything significant herself. Her allies helped her do pretty much everything she's done so far, and she's been increasingly less relevant to the point where it almost seems like the writers intended to minimize her usefulness these last three seasons, just to plant that seed of an idea that perhaps the world no longer needs the Avatar.

Jumping off my Jinora point, the fact that Korra saved the Air Nation from the brink of extinction and now they're going to help her seems like a nice full circle thing that plenty of stories do and fits very well into stories trying to establish the legend of a larger than life character. It is because of the circle that the legend is established, the character is so big people who wouldn't ordinarily go out of their way, go out of their way to help said character. Whether stories do it or not successfully is a whole other issue.

When was Sokka's broken arm--his completely broken arm--healed in this way?

Look it up, I gave you the link that I got it from. >_>

[Much later post]

Healing wounds and recovering from them are two different things. Muscles need rest and physical training in order to guarantee proper movement. Even then, some people might opt to use things like crutches and wheelchairs because they don't want to stress their muscles. Besides, I don't remember healing curing the aftereffects of repairing broken bones and muscles.

As previously noted, healing can indeed cure broken bones, if indeed that's what Kya suffers from (it's never explicitly said, though, so that's still presumptuous). There is pretty much no reason for Kya to still need a crutch two weeks later. I'm more flexible with Korra's state since they're clearly going for a "mental scarring" dynamic, which would explain her general "out-of-it-ness", but her needing a wheelchair also seems pretty unusual since the physical damage should long have been fixed by now.

Hate to break this to you, but that wiki is borderline reliable. It is good for generalities, but between the wishy-washy grammar and the occasional lack of clarification it's not good for confirming details. I happen to remember the episode you're referencing SOMEWHAT well and if I recall right, Sokka got his arm treated, not fully healed. Keep in mind, he was using a crutch at the ATLA finale due to his fall on one of the Fire Nation airships. If waterbending healing was so fantastic why was he using a crutch?

Katara also told Toph upon seeing her feet, burned courtesy of a reformed Zuko attempting (badly) reconciliation with Team Avatar, that she wishes she could have gotten to them sooner, so they could heal better, cleaner, and faster. Katara fully admitted there that she could not make the burns magically disappear. So, yes everyone is right in saying that waterbending healing is not a magical cure-all, it is a magical treat-all. The one example you continually use is when Aang was brought back from the verge of death, yet Katara tells him she did this through spirit water and creator commentary and Nick text commentary shown during marathons indicates this came at the cost of the North Water Tribe's spirt pond completely drying up (symbolizing its spiritual aura was gone, all going towards healing Aang's special circumstances wound). Aang's wound didn't go away and he spent a good couple weeks minimum healing as evidenced by the Book 3 opener very clearly.

People might remember Ozai more than Ghazan because Ozai was the complete and utter Big Bad of the entire Last Airbender series. Sorry if one side member of the evil team from one season of the Legend of Korra doesn't measure up to that standard. It's also incredibly easy to describe Ozai because he's a one dimension cartoon villain.

Ah, more irrational hate on the original series in a weak attempt to put the new series on a pedestal.

You do realize even the most diehard fans agree Ozai is the most generic big villain in the entire show. He got one scene of depth and that's it. I would have said the creators have termed him this as well, they talk far more, and giddily so, about Azula, but you don't seem to have much respect for them. It actually shocks me that you don't have that much respect: I thought I was the Avatar fan with unusual disrespect for them. I think they're great world builders and visionaries, they're very knowledgeable on a lot of stuff and one of them did study martial arts extensively, but they're not the best overall writers. I think we would have gotten better character development if Book 1 Korra was more like how Book 3 Korra started (not quite at that level though) and then turned into end of Book 3 Korra. Anyway, they wrote 2 fan favorite episodes of the old series. Every other single fan favorite episode was written by other people; they made ATLA great, not the creators. It's kind of like Star Wars in that respect.

On that note, here's that IGN review some people have been mentioning. You look like you need context.

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This is ....actually a pretty decent explanation for why Bolin could potentially learn how to lava bend. My main problems with it are still outstanding, though.

[ul]a) It was never really hinted at (and no, people, them showing that Bolin can't metal bend is not an actual hint that he can lava bend....that's like saying that my inability to dance shows that I have a hidden talent for singing).
b) Lava bending is shown to be an extremely unique form of earth bending. Prior to Ghazan, who was effectively the first lava bender (and again, no, people, the previous Avatars who have mastery of both fire and earth using the Avatar State to bend lava is not at all the same as a regular human who only controls earth bending being able to lava bend), there were no other instances of its use. So Bolin's had no way of knowing how to do it or anything of the sort. It seems extremely convenient and unlikely that he of all earth benders would develop the ability, especially at random in an instant of peril.[/ul]

I do like your explanation for why it fits with his fighting style, though. That's actually pretty well thought out. Kudos.

You can argue all day and all night about whether Bolin not being able to metalbend is a hint at lavabending, but you know what it is a hint at? Him amounting to something. What would be the point of introducing that side arc for Bolin if they weren't going to do anything with it? Lavabending was a bit of an asspull I agree, but to say him doing something crazy out of nowhere wasn't bound to happen would be a bit ingenuous, don't you think? He had to do something. It being lavabending isn't as bad as you're making it out to be. I would also like to point out that terrible fan theroists, the kind who would write terrible fan fiction if anyone ever gave them the idea, predicted Bolin would lavabend the minute he fought Ghazan at the oasis. Even with all the things I've said about you, you're clearly "smarter" than them.

Lava Bending was slightly hinted at but ultimately not of real concern. It's pretty clear that Ghazan wasn't really trying with the fight against Bolin. And it was only when he was ganged up upon when he lost it.

It really wasn't, though, and that's my problem with it. The only "hint" came in the form of Bolin being incapable of metal bending, and as Bolin himself said, that's not unusual since most earth benders simply can't metal bend by definition, it's an extremely rare ability. There were no direct hints that Bolin had lava bending talent at any point in the story. Even a small, well-hidden throw-away hint would have been enough for me, but they didn't even do that.

You seem to be forgetting what Suyin said. She told Bolin the only thing preventing Bolin from metalbending was his attitude about it and himself. If a daughter of Toph believes anyone with the right attitude can learn metalbending then I believe it. Considering that Republic City has a police force full of mooks who can metalbend and there's an entire city of metalbenders, I'd say it's not this rare ability special people have. I think that point is moot.

 

[Abomination]

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I think you all need to watch this again:
Chakras are something inside all people of the Avatar universe and unlocking them all isn't just for the purpose of the Avatar as humanity itself predates the Avatar. It is stated unlocking all chakras gives one connection to the universe itself and eventually, possibly spiritual enlightenment.

I would argue that it's a different path to a similar destination. Zaheer doesn't become one with "the universe" he becomes one with "the void".

The Universe is -everything- whereas the Void is -nothing-. Complete opposites. While the paths are similar I think we might be observing almost a Jedi/Sith separation here. Zaheer didn't "let go" of his love, it was taken from him. He doesn't wish for harmony, he wishes for anarchy.

Then again, he is accessing something that hasn't been touched in thousands of years. He might as well be rediscovering fire. He understands how he has it, but doesn't understand the entire complexities of it. Perhaps it is chakras, or maybe it's another system that obtained a similar result.

 

[Henkie36]

It's true that the when the full extent of Zaheer's plan is revealed, it's pretty underwelming. And even though I hate to admit it, it sort of ties together with the villain himself. Out of four, Zaheer was the only one who was given any character. The other three are just henchmen. They have cool designs and abilities, but no real character to speak of. Unlike Amon, who was a great villain, Zaheer never seemed very threatning to me. Amon was a schemer and you just knew he had the whole thing planned out, A to Z, every contingency planned and accounted for. Zaheer is making this up as he goes. And while that fits an anarchist, something that's important to know is that we love scheming villains. Why? Because we are schemers. For references, watch the scene in The Dark Knight when the Joker visits Harvey Dent in the hospital.

Even though the Joker and Zaheer are both anarchists, we know Zaheer can be beaten. He has been beaten before by regular benders, they didn't even need the Avatar's help for that. The surprise reveal that he is an anarchist is not very surprising since the tone for the character had already been set; the intelligent, calm villain with a distinct lack of authority.

That's what I think doesn't work. What does about these characters? Well, like I said, the henchmen do have very cool abilities, I liked seeing the combustion bending again, lavabending is just awesome, the waterarms make her almost unstoppable, and seeing two airbenders fight eachother was simply inspired.

The rest of the season, if I had to summarize, I'd say there is quite a lot of middle. It serves to make the characters more interesting, not further the story per se. I liked Suyin, I liked the new airbenders, I liked seeing more of Tonraq and I liked seeing Zuko again, even though I hoped he would be a little more active. Episode 4 proved he still has the skills to do serious combat, in spite of his age (he's supposed to be 89 by now) and the same thing goes for the Wonder Twins. This season is constantly good, but it takes until episode 10 that I started saying ''It was absolutely great''. It's a better route than season two, which was dwaddeling around for ever, then had two fantastic episodes, and the episodes after ranged between so-so and ''it was pretty good I guess''. It's telling a smaller story than season two, but that's for the better. It allows more time to be focussed on the characters, which makes a world of difference.

It definitely leaves on an interesting note, as was remarked by the article: is the Avatar an outdated pinciple? Korra seems to think so, as she couldn't beat Zaheer on her own, and she is confined to a wheelchair for the forseeable future, but the world keeps on spinning. Part of me wants to see the new Air Nomads fail, just so Korra will regain her ideals again and faith that the Avatar is still needed.

On the whole, this season was a massive improvement over the second, it had a fantastic ending, even though the big reveal was underwhelming, it did feel big and that something was actually at stake. I absolutely loved it and I'm very excited about Book 4.

 

[Lightknight]

I'm utterly shameless in admitting that Bolin is my favorite character.

He is by far the best character this season. Not much screentime but still.

And for you Bolin Fans out there:

This is one of my all time favorite Avatar scenes in which Bolin meets Lord Zuko.

<youtube=3ZvCJ1pSCgs>

Seriously, if the team had put even half of the effort in designing Korra as they did the rest of the cast then they'd have had a meaningful protagonist. It seems like the writing staff has figured this out and have gone a long way to elevate the rest of the cast and give her a back seat.

Or, they've just doubled down and given her even more reason to whine and be broody all the time without actually learning from life lessons along the way.

 

[Wolyo]

I think you all need to watch this again:
Chakras are something inside all people of the Avatar universe and unlocking them all isn't just for the purpose of the Avatar as humanity itself predates the Avatar. It is stated unlocking all chakras gives one connection to the universe itself and eventually, possibly spiritual enlightenment.

-snip-

There's also consideration given to whether the method to unlocking the 7th chakra is so literal since Avatars who clearly have earthly attachments mastered the Avatar State. I can't find where that possibility is discussed on the wiki, but basically there are a few possibilities.
1) One must be able to separate what is important in the moment. It is a temporary thing.
2) There is more than one way to unlock the 7th chakra.
3) It is completely literal. No Avatar can open all 7 chakras. That is why you never see an Avatar in the continuous Avatar State for extended periods of time beyond a few hours at best with the exception of Aang who was frozen, allowing it to hold.

Well everything to this point is just speculation, until the creators explain it but openning the 7th chakra was for Aang to let go of his personnal needs to become one with the world, putting the world before himself. Which is the duty of the avatar.

Avatar Yangchen in the episode "the old masters" state clearly that the avatar can never attain spiritual enlightement and detache himself from the world because his sole duty his to the world.

So yes maybe Zaheer unlocked the 7th chakra, but I don't think that's what unlocked last power of the airbender. When P'Li died so as his last anchor to the world. He had no earthly tether anymore, he entered the void, empty and became wind, litteraly.

They clearly showed us the importance of P'Li for him, and that last moment together was for that too.

Even in avatar state, the Avatar can not fly like Zaheer, Korra could not, Aang could not. They could fly but not in the same way. Zaheer can become weightless, the Avatar, in the avatar state, has to actively use airbending or firebending for that.

So that's why I think that Zaheer did not openned at that moment the 7th chakra but achieved spiritual enlightement at the death of P'Li. Maybe openning the 7th chakra is needed for that, I don't know but that's not what made him able to fly.

This is one of my all time favorite Avatar scenes in which Bolin meets Lord Zuko.

<youtube=3ZvCJ1pSCgs>

I want to see him meet Toph! Because, I want to see old Toph and Bolin reaction to the one who created metalbending will be epic!

 

[jamail77]

snip

Well everything to this point is just speculation, until the creators explain it but openning the 7th chakra was for Aang to let go of his personnal needs to become one with the world, putting the world before himself. Which is the duty of the avatar.

Avatar Yangchen in the episode "the old masters" state clearly that the avatar can never attain spiritual enlightement and detache himself from the world because his sole duty his to the world.

So yes maybe Zaheer unlocked the 7th chakra, but I don't think that's what unlocked last power of the airbender. When P'Li died so as his last anchor to the world. He had no earthly tether anymore, he entered the void, empty and became wind, litteraly.

They clearly showed us the importance of P'Li for him, and that last moment together was for that too.

I am well aware of this; I mean they made the P'Li connection pretty damn obvious. I was referring to the larger discussion between the four of you, three now no longer quoted; there seemed to be some lack of recall on that concept and I wanted to clear it up. I never said that Zaheer unlocked chakras, but the philosophy discussed was indeed very similar to the chakra discussion that was going on in ATLA. It was getting mentioned in the discussion between the four of you, so I just wanted to make the facts clear, not the opinions.

I am also well aware this is all speculation hence why I said it was a consideration discussed on a wishy washy wiki. If you go back to my post and read on after my response to the four of you you'll see my long response to, apparently now banned, CriticKitten in which I criticized the wiki on its generally right, but otherwise wishy washy nature. Either way that is the question though: Did Aang need to let go of personal needs and connect with the whole world, including humanity, which would fall under the temporary, not literal theory of the 7th chakra, or did Aang need to detach himself from the world altogether and sync with the larger universe like Guru Pathik seemed to be suggesting? The latter case leaves a bad taste in many fans' mouths because it almost makes it sound like Aang would no longer empathize with people because he's not actively living on their level anymore. We see Korra connect with the cosmic energy of the universe at the end of Book 2, yet for some that raises more questions than it answers especially since she was disconnected from the one thing that made her the physical embodiment of the Avatar, if not the moral embodiment. That's not to say you need to be the Avatar to connect to the universe, clearly not. Still, it leaves some holes that need to be filled by definitive statements or clear demonstration. Otherwise, the world just feels incomplete to me.

Sorry, if any of that sounded rude. That discussion with CriticKitten was exhausting and may have left some residual but unintentional rudeness.

 

[Hectix777]

I'm utterly shameless in admitting that Bolin is my favorite character.

He is by far the best character this season. Not much screentime but still.

And for you Bolin Fans out there:

I'll be in my bunk...

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Kind of funny considering that the only dying characters in Legend Of Korra, from the first season is the bad guys, and none of the good guys (Of course, there are implied character's death, like Mako and Bolin's parent, but whatever). No matter, still an entertaining show in my book.

Eh, actually I believe the story Mako gave was that his dad and mom were both killed by a fire bending criminal.....In front of him and Bolin.

Not so much implied death, as "described death". I believe Asami's mom had a similar fate.

OT:
Anyway, a lot of people keep saying that the Avatar is "no longer needed". Besides people in the show saying "Dang. We really need an Avatar right now. :/", I think people may be getting the wrong idea on Korra's depressed demeanor.

I don't think it's so much that she's sad because she thinks she isn't needed, but rather that she feels like she isn't able to help anyone anymore.

The avatar is "the bridge between worlds", so seeing as the spirit world and her world are now open to each other, and the Earth Kingdom sounds like it's headed for some tough times, I'd say she pretty needed right about now.

Plus, in her relatively short time as avatar she's had to deal with someone trying to remove all bending (including hers), a very powerful spirit trying to return and destroy the world, and a cult of anarchists trying to kill her for good, then go on to kill all people in authority.

How people watch all that then say, "Well, guess we're done with the avatar now", is a bit confusing to me.

 

[LobsterFeng]

Korra rolls on? I don't know if that was intentional or not but either way I lost my shit. Bravo.

Good ending, very sudden and very somber. They might not have the best writers but they really did well with this ending imo.

 

[Wolyo]

I'll be in my bunk...

Now something about that is just downright unsettlin'.