Avatar: The Legend of Korra Season 4
Jul. 31st, 2015 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThree years after her battle with Zaheer and the Red Lotus, Korra has taken a long hiatus from her avatar duties and the gaps have been filled by both the new Air Nation and a metalbender named Kuvira. The latter is working to reunite the fragmented Earth Kingdom, but her methods and goals aren’t quite as altruistic as it appears.
So…realistic depictions of PTSD, anyone? It takes Korra three years plus the better part of the season to get over her near-death experience, and even then it leaves her permanently changed. Woo, character growth!
I saw it coming fairly early that Kuvira’s final defeat would come in a non-violent way. There was a lot of buildup over the season towards, “Korra can’t actually bring balance via violence.” Then again, over the course of the series, Korra’s go-to solution for most problems is to hit them really hard, and that very rarely works on anything. Violence is generally a holding action until a real solution is implemented: Amon was defeated by public exposure. Unalaq/Vaatu was defeated by the spirit purification ritual (which ends in “go in peace”). Zaheer was defeated by teamwork (the new Air Nation Korra had gathered all working together). And Kuvira was defeated by talking sense into her after her own stupidity almost got her killed.
I had been spoiled for Korra/Asami in the ending, but honestly, the scene was subtle enough that if I hadn’t been warned, I wouldn’t have necessarily read it as romantic. I appreciate that reading of it—and there were a bunch of things in the last season that did seem to build in that direction—but I have to wonder how many people’s heads it flew over.
It occurs to me to wonder if Bolin’s ability to lavabend may be related to his fire/earth heritage, and as interbreeding continues, more of the mixed-element techniques will arise. Could an airbender from the water tribe weatherbend? Could one from the fire nation soundbend?
And dammit, Sokka never reappeared and we never found out what happened to his Space Sword!
Overall: The series definitely got stronger as it progressed; and I have to wonder if it would have evolved differently and with a stronger pacing if they knew from the beginning exactly how many episodes they would have. It’s never quite at the level as AtLA, but it’s solid and I enjoyed it.
So…realistic depictions of PTSD, anyone? It takes Korra three years plus the better part of the season to get over her near-death experience, and even then it leaves her permanently changed. Woo, character growth!
I saw it coming fairly early that Kuvira’s final defeat would come in a non-violent way. There was a lot of buildup over the season towards, “Korra can’t actually bring balance via violence.” Then again, over the course of the series, Korra’s go-to solution for most problems is to hit them really hard, and that very rarely works on anything. Violence is generally a holding action until a real solution is implemented: Amon was defeated by public exposure. Unalaq/Vaatu was defeated by the spirit purification ritual (which ends in “go in peace”). Zaheer was defeated by teamwork (the new Air Nation Korra had gathered all working together). And Kuvira was defeated by talking sense into her after her own stupidity almost got her killed.
I had been spoiled for Korra/Asami in the ending, but honestly, the scene was subtle enough that if I hadn’t been warned, I wouldn’t have necessarily read it as romantic. I appreciate that reading of it—and there were a bunch of things in the last season that did seem to build in that direction—but I have to wonder how many people’s heads it flew over.
It occurs to me to wonder if Bolin’s ability to lavabend may be related to his fire/earth heritage, and as interbreeding continues, more of the mixed-element techniques will arise. Could an airbender from the water tribe weatherbend? Could one from the fire nation soundbend?
And dammit, Sokka never reappeared and we never found out what happened to his Space Sword!
Overall: The series definitely got stronger as it progressed; and I have to wonder if it would have evolved differently and with a stronger pacing if they knew from the beginning exactly how many episodes they would have. It’s never quite at the level as AtLA, but it’s solid and I enjoyed it.
