Dara and I never finished up watching the second season of Avatar: The Legend of Korra while it was airing, so we missed the finale at the time. We were feeling ambivalent about the whole thing, given that through several of those initial episodes, the characters felt like flat caricatures of themselves–especially Lin Beifong, which was just unforgivable. And I found much of what they were doing with Bolin and his relationship with Eska from the Northern Water Tribe painfully unwatchable.
But now that season 3 has started airing and I’ve been seeing delighted buzz about it, and since our housemate Paul was going to ASPLODE FROM SPOILERS if we didn’t hurry up and get caught up, we made a point of doing that this weekend.
And wow, I’m glad we did. The last few episodes of season 2 were utterly delightful. Bolin stopped being annoying. Lin finally stopped being stupid. Eska and her brother returned to being the Vulcans of this entire cast, which was great. Tenzin and his siblings all got great character development.
And Korra, oh my mighty and awesome Korra. She was amazing in the finale.
Now that series 3 is starting up, that momentum is continuing. A few spoiler-y comments behind the picture and the fold!
Mako, Korra, and Bolin
Depth and humor have returned to all the character interactions. I’m loving that airbending has spontaneously started reappearing in the world. I’m thrilled that there was minimal angst about the breakup of Korra and Mako, and that Korra and Asami are on splendid terms–and as for Asami, wow, she is a symphony of grace in a fight, isn’t she? And Mako’s really kind of adorable as he fumbles his way through trying to figure out how to deal with Korra now.
The twins now ruling the Northern Water Tribe is hysterical (my favorite line out of them so far: “Why did no one tell us we had a secret ice prison we could be throwing people into?”).
Delighted to see Mako and Bolin getting to explore their family history in Ba Sing Se, and Dara, Paul, and I were also all highly intrigued to see that the Earth Queen is kidnapping new airbenders and forcing them into her army. Countdown to Korra putting a stop to that shit in 3… 2…
Also EEEEEEE WE GET TO SEE ZUKO AGAIN. On a goddamn dragon. As is ENTIRELY RIGHT AND JUST FOR THE FIRE LORD.
I’m thrilled to be excited about the world of Avatar again. Korra, welcome back.
