Season Review: The Legend of Korra Book Four

If there ever was a roller coaster based on The Legend of Korra, Book Four was it.

I have never seen a show that has had such a roller coaster trip like The Legend of Korra. Book Four started out guns blazing, trying to get the series going on it’s jet engines. For the first few episodes, that worked. It seemed like the writers, mainly Brian Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, just wanted to pump the brakes so that the story slowed to a crawl as the season went on. It was a detriment to what was supposed to be an explosive finale to the new Avatar series.

The season started with a pretty good “Where did Korra go?” type of arc, where no one knew where she was for six months. The weight of this arc was Korra meeting Toph, who has been thought dead or lost for this entire series. If there was one thing that Konietzko and DiMartino are good at, it’s giving the fans what they want. Zuko came last season, and this season we get Toph. My problem there is that having Toph in this season created so much wasted potential.

When you have a character like Toph, someone who is revered by both fans and characters in the show, the expectations start out as high as the stars. I’ll admit, I was expecting so much more with Toph, considering she gave Korra the way to stop being the center of her own pity party. Toph was featured so heavily during episodes two through four, it was like she was going to be a major part of the season. That was something I would have loved to see, considering it revolved around the Earth Kingdom. But, alas, Toph only showed up one more time, when Opal wanted to save her family. She wasn’t there for the battle of Republic City, and wasn’t there for the final send off, just like Zuko.

The season went well, until Korra fought Kuvira in “The Battle of Zaofu.” That’s when the season sputtered. Ironically, It was the opposite of how Book Two worked out. Where Book Two started out terribly slow and ramped up to a decent finish starting at episodes seven and eight, “Beginnings,” Book Four sputtered out around episode six.

Korra was defeated in a fight that seemed entirely way out of place, and way too late. If this were to happen early, like episode one or two, this would have worked a lot better. Korra had just come out Toph’s swamp, complete with a new found self confidence, only to watch it snap two episodes later. What made things even worse was the mess that was episodes seven, eight, and nine.

“Reunion,” Remembrances,” and “Beyond the Wilds,” were a three episode engine stall. “Reunion” was an awkward episode where everyone was shitting on Korra for not showing up. “Remembrances” was a flashback episode chronicling Korra, Mako, and Bolin’s different take on what’s been going on in the series. The only reason this happened was because Viacom decided to cut the funding to the show by an episode. I get it. But here is where I piss off more people when I say, maybe they should have cut an episode.

“Beyond the Wilds” was the only episode where Korra seemed to actually try to better herself. The spirit vines were running amok because of Kuvira, and Korra had to go into the Spirit World to save people who were kidnapped by the vines. It was also the episode where the season tried to get back on track, but it was nothing more than an engine sputter.

“Operation Beifong” is where the series came on track for a couple episodes, only to get derailed by “Day of the Colossus” and “The Last Stand.” Much like Zaheer in Book Three’s two part finale, Kuvira wasn’t acting like she was during the season. Kuvira seemed to have tunnel vision, with no thought of her soldiers, or her supposed love, Baatar Jr. She wanted the Avatar for herself, or dead, and she was sacrificing anything to get what she wanted. This finale was just the culmination in what was so rage inducing.

I can’t help but think that this season was rushed, with Konietzko and DiMartino writing by the seat of their pants. There was so much that didn’t make sense, like Toph just disappearing, Zuko no where to be seen, Korra not really doing anything to get over her self doubt, or her actually doing anything. Look back at the finale, I’ll wait.

She did nothing. She didn’t bring down the Kuvira, her Colossus, or keep Republic City from becoming a crater. The Airbenders did the distracting, Asami, an atoning Hiroshi, Varrick, and Zhu-Li created the hole to get in, Su and Lin disabled the cannon, and Mako and Bolin blew up the power core. All Korra did was fight a bit. She was still getting worked over, by Kuvira. Korra didn’t do much of anything except save herself from the cannon with her bubble. Oh, and she walked Kuvira out of the Spirit World after Kuvira tore a Spirit Portal right in the middle of the city.

I was trying to not say anything about the elephant in the season, but I think it has to happen. In Konietzko’s Tumblr, he puts something to rest, for good. Korrasami is a real thing. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, if it wasn’t so obvious. I mean, when the entire fandom calls it from the first time they talked like people, they were going to be together. I think I would have liked this ending a lot better if they actually cemented it on the show. I can’t be too angry, the ending was one of the few high points of the season. I speak a lot more on this in the episode review. It wasn’t a bad scene, it was just in the worst two episodes of the series. It makes me miss pro-bending

I tried very hard to like this season. Unfortunately, Book Four just gave me a terrible taste in my mouth. I can’t help but think that Book Four just made The Legend of Korra just seem mediocre. A lot of things were forced, like Kuvira becoming unhinged, and others seemed entirely out of place, like Korra’s fight with Kuvira. I just wanted to throw my hands up then, because I knew that the season was about to go off the deep end.

Writing aside, the season was animated as beautiful as ever. Studio Mir was as great as ever, making the fights and atmosphere as great as any season has been. I can’t really say anything bad, because this season was probably the best type of eye candy Nick could put on their site.

And then, there were the voice overs. Zelda Williams absolutely nailed Kuvira. She did as great of a job as Henry Rollins did as Zaheer. If there was one thing that The Legend of Korra has excelled at, it has been excellent voice acting. The regulars of Janet Varney, David Faustino, and P.J. Byrne all delivered this season, in spite of what was written on the paper they were reading. If any cartoon needs a lesson on how to get a great voice cast, let them watch this entire series. I can’t speak highly enough of the cast.

Book Four was just so mediocre, it actually tarnished the Avatar legacy. I know that is harsh, but I can’t really say anything less. The highs are what carried this season, even through the terrible low points. Now that the review is over, and Korra’s series is done, I am going to go back and watch The Last Airbender again to feel how a great story should unfold.