on DVD.
{Spoiler}
Episode 1We start the season with Bumi (and his bunny spirit animal with propeller ears) as he suddenly gets air-bending powers and sends himself over a cliff (his bunny spirit animal is no help, grabbing his jacket which he promptly slips out of), but manages to air-bend himself from splattering onto the ground - albeit briefly - before coming to a less grisly, but still hurt-y, landing. What’s brought this on? Something to do with
Harmonica Harmonic Convergence from the end of last season. That’s also apparently responsible for the vines spreading everywhere. Since his breakup with Korra, Mako’s been sleeping under his desk at work and is super awkward with her and Asami, which they both find amusing (making fun of his salute). What Asami finds
less amusing is Korra's driving skills (or lack thereof). When talking about Mako snogging both of them, they each pretend to be offended by when exactly this snogging occurred (since they were with him at different times), but they're just ribbing each other. It was fun seeing them bond, not getting hung up on each other having dated Mako/being rivals because of a guy.
Speaking of, Mako’s having a much less fun time than the two ladies, getting taken out by a door when he goes to track down someone else who’s suddenly received air-bending abilities (and can’t control them). The rest of Korra’s day isn’t much better, as she’s hounded by paparazzi and the President (who’s still a douche), but she manages to talk down the reluctant new airbender guy from going all suicidal (the dude ends up falling anyways - taking her with him - but luckily she’s got one of those staffs that turn into a glider thing like Aang had, which comes in handy). Meanwhile, the season’s Big Bad breaks free from jail. Oh, and there was a bunch of shit involving Tenzin and his annoying kids but I prefer to ignore all of that.
Episode 2Bolin and his Grandmother impression he did to guilt-trip Mako into joining him and the others in going on a road trip to recruit new air-benders was amusing to me (especially the “...and then she dies.” ending part). Their way of attempting to recruit was also entertaining, with Tenzin’s attempts to make it sound fun/exciting (which epically failed to entice one family man they tried to recruit who had a good life going which joining them would’ve disrupted). But I had to agree with one point Tenzin made: who WOULDN’T want a flying bison as their best friend? Then they try to be more ‘theatrical’ in public (as per Bolin’s suggestion, since he has experience doing so - and apparently he also has a supply of fake mustaches that he’s always itching to use). Mako totally not being into playing his part of a bad Fire Nation dude was funny, and once again Korra/Asami had some fun at his expense when he’s caught up in a mini tornado Korra creates that wasn’t part of what they'd rehearsed. One new air-bender guy they try recruiting is a slacker/loser who lives in his mum’s basement and who she wants to be rid of, but he annoys Korra to death with his questions/attitude and I enjoyed seeing her lose it at him/having to be pulled off by Mako & Bolin.
Then came the not-so-fun introduction of a kid character named Kai, who spins them some sob story about his parents dying protecting him and his village, but in reality he’s a thief who has escaped the law after ripping off an apparently nice adoptive family, taking their life savings. Straight away I was pissed that I was going to have to put up with another Toph-like annoying kid character joining a gang of characters I'd liked up to that point, but thankfully he didn’t quite reach the level of hatred I have for Toph and at least Mako was there to not buy any of his BS (which the others seemed far too forgiving of). Also, it took no time for this kid to start flirting with Tenzin’s daughter. Elsewhere, the Big Bad frees other bad guys from prisons specifically designed to hold them (there’s a lava-bending dude on a ship who makes a lava boomerang-y thing and a chick with no arms who’s held in a suspended prison surrounded by heat...that is until she creates tentacle-like arms out of water when her fellow bad guys give her some to water-bend). The episode ends with Old Man Zuko, who I guess never got his scar healed...but on the plus-side, now he has a FREAKING DRAGON (and apparently he wants to
help the Avatar - which is a far cry from how he currently is in A:TLA which I’m still watching Season 2 episodes of on TV since the current season is so frickin’ LONG and it makes me appreciate these shorter seasons of TLoK, as they’re not so drawn-out).
Episode 3I was already sick to death of Kai when his stealing from various characters was treated as a ‘joke’/’funny’, plus the fact that Bolin quickly became obsessed with the kid, basically adopting him as his ‘younger brother’. Thankfully, Mako’s a bit more reasonable with his wary attitude towards the thief who steals from people so he can go live it up but eventually gets caught and thrown in prison to fight for the Earth Queen - which is a well- deserved punishment, if you ask me. Speaking of that hag, she’s an old bitchy woman who tasks Korra with getting her riches back (it was nice seeing Korra and Asami kicking some arse together at one point, with Asami still using her electro-glove thing she took from Equalists in Season 1). Meanwhile, Mako & Bolin go searching for the little thieving bastard (the funniest line of the episode has to be Bolin saying to Mako, “Bad news is we’re stuck here, good news is you can go to the bathroom wherever you want!” cheerily after they end up in a shithole that's basically Crackton from
The Simpsons) and they encounter a fruit seller (who doesn’t like Mako insulting their fly-attracting bad fruit but
also doesn’t like the thought of them potentially stealing it, which just confuses Mako) that just so happens to be a relation to them, he takes them back home and they meet their grandmother and cousins.
Elsewhere, Old Man Zuko retrieves the entertaining twins from last season who’re bored running their tribe after their father’s demise which they weren’t sad about (what happened to their mum they mentioned in the season final?), he takes them and Korra’s dad (I think?) to go make sure a chick in an icy prison isn’t freed by the Big Bad and we only get a glimpse of her mouth. The twins are still amusing, with Eska remarking on them only just
now learning of an icy prison that they could’ve been throwing people in all this time, while Desna says he would’ve thrown his tailor (who never gets his cuffs right) in there. There’s a funny bit with Old Man Zuko telling the twins he once sent a fire-bender after the Avatar (Aang) and Eska says she tried to kill Korra after her wedding mishap, shrugging off that “it happens”. While this is going on, the Earth Queen's reneging on the deal she made with Korra (who promptly tells her off, which I was thankful for).
Episode 4I took an instant disliking to the three-eyed chick, who was freed from her icy prison by her fellow bad guys, when she blasted Old Man Zuko’s dragon (how dare she!). Apparently she’s a “combustion-bender” and all I could think was that combustion-benders and lava-benders are some very specific offshoots from the main four element benders we know of. I suppose there were already metal-benders, but these were even more obscure. And as if that isn’t bad enough, she then proceeds to make out with the Big Bad (much to the disgust of their two fellow bad guys...as well as us, the audience). Kai’s being trained to fight for the Earth Queen with other unwilling new air-benders, he makes a friend (by going easy on him when he’s supposed to be fighting him...at least to
start with, but then he ends up blasting him with air after the trainer demands it, so clearly he ain’t so loyal - but that’s probably to be expected from a thief), and eventually they’re rescued (should’ve left him in prison!). We learn the Earth Queen has an allergy to animals and she almost catches sight of Pabu (who doesn’t think much of continually being hidden inside Bolin’s sweaty shirt) a couple times.
Episode 5In Metal City, Lin Beifong’s on Korra’s case for tossing a (metal) ball with Naga when there are bad guys loose (shut up, Lin!). Then she’s a further bitch to Naga, who just wanted her to throw her metal ball (even pushing it towards her with her nose after Korra left), as Lin instead just destroys it (she’s SO her mother’s daughter. Toph was a bitch and so is her spawn) - poor sad Naga, but least Pabu’s her friend who regularly sits on her head. Turns out this show features MANY characters who are related to each other, as we meet Lin’s sister, Suyin (who I didn’t realise, until after looking at the cast list on IMDB, was voiced by Anne Heche) and her daughter, Opal, who’s another new air-bender (that Bolin takes an instant liking to). I got a laugh out of actually witnessing Mako using hair gel in this episode (it was always clear that he used it given his hairstyle, but actually
seeing him use it was unexpectedly amusing) as he’s warning Bolin off of pursuing Opal, rattling off his other g/f’s (a bimbo actress and psycho ice princess). Apparently Lin’s not just a bitch to animals, but also her sister - but at least at the end of the ep Korra tells her she’s just a bitter old woman or something to that effect. Once again, I didn’t care about the stupid Tenzin kid parts of the episode. The only bit worth noting was the shaved-head guy who turned up at their place (as other new air-benders had been doing) was actually the season’s Big Bad (who looks completely unrecognisable when compared to how we first met him with long-hair and a beard) who’d snuck in.
Episode 6I found this a rather meh episode, as it was all about Lin getting acupuncture to deal with stress about her sister, remembering how they didn’t get along since her sis was friends with criminals and Lin was a new cop, then when she was going to arrest her, Suyin cut a cable Lin had wrapped around her which struck her sister in the face and this explains how Lin got her scar. I can now kind of understand Lin’s resentment towards her sister (especially since she only apologises to her for being a bitch, but *not* for disfiguring her). I thought to myself “Typical Toph” when, via flashback, we saw her being tough on her daughters, chastising them when she was just like them herself when she was younger (hypocrite!) and then I had to do a MASSIVE eyeroll when Bolin said to Opal that Toph was his “biggest hero” (SERIOUSLY?! Must *every* person idolize her?! What about Korra? I’m pretty sure
she was your ‘hero’ back in Season 1, Bolin, you fickle bastard!). Suyin, who seems to be the only one in the Beifong family who’s actually
grown up/matured as a character from her adolescence, teaches Korra metal-bending (which Bolin also wants to learn), while the bad guys just keep on bad guy-ing (*yawn*). Sure, it’s cool that they’ve each got their own special bending skills, but other than the visuals they allow for, I don’t find any of them particularly compelling.
Episode 7Another meh episode focused on Tenzin teaching the new air-benders, including his kids, his brother and the Big Bad who none of them realise is the Big Bad. Kai continues to be an annoying little shit after he was *told* by Jinora to stay away from baby flying bison and he gets into strife/she has to save his arse (annoyingly, he also keeps saying ‘bisons’ despite Tenzin pointing out the actual plural of bison is ‘bison’ earlier during training). Bumi is popular with the kids because he thinks Tenzin’s lessons are ‘boring’ just like they do, they fail at air-bending their way through an obstacle course and at the end just whine at Tenzin about being tired, wanting to see their families, etc and Tenzin’s finally HAD IT with them (can’t say I blame him). Meanwhile, there are ‘bison rustlers’ (one of whom wears a bison’s pelt, so you *know* they’re truly evil) who imprison the baby bison. Kai helps free them (it was sort of funny how when one of the baby bison was freed from its cage, it just tumbles out onto its back and then gets back up and shambles off like that’s a normal landing for it), stick the bison rustlers in the cages (poetic justice!) and now all the air-benders-in-training have bison to ride (stop enslaving these poor animals, you bastards!). Bumi has a rare ‘human’ moment at the end where he gets to be serious instead of the comic relief (though I've
never found funny at all) when he says he was being the way he was to Tenzin because he thought he could never measure up to him as Aang’s son or whatever. *snore*
Episode 8The bad guys attack, trying to kidnap Korra after shooting her with a dart to knock her out (prior to that, they'd already shot poor Naga with
three darts and she looked kinda dead with her eyes open and tongue hanging out...but thankfully that wasn’t the case). Pabu tried to warn Bolin of intruders, but he wouldn’t listen until it was too late (listen to your animal companions, you jerks! And take better care of them too!). I actually prefer the show when it just focuses on the main four (aka ‘Team Avatar’) of Korra, Mako, Bolin & Asami like this episode (and the next few) did. Though there wasn’t much Asami in this ep, at least there were no annoying kids!
Episode 9I enjoyed Korra getting angry about the Earth Queen and saying, “If I ever see her pinchy little queen face again, I’m gonna --!" before she was cut off. Even funnier was Naga (who finally got something to *do* this ep) sniffing/tracking, but Korra having no treats to reward her with, instead just rubbing her face and telling her she was a good girl - which earned Korra a tail-whipping to the face.
This^ was probably one of the funniest jokes the show has had thus far (and even better that it featured Naga, who’s felt criminally underused for some time now). Bolin thinks a poster on a wall is of his ‘Nuktuk’ character, but Mako points out it’s a ‘Wanted’ poster and there’s ones for all four of them. Bolin then comes up with elaborate backstory for himself and Mako (who’s not into it and just uses his actual backstory ie. that he’s a cop) as they go undercover. When they go to get a room to stay at, the gang believe bounty hunters (who kept following them earlier) have caught up to them, but they turn out to be just fans who want an autograph from ‘Nuktuk’ and the woman made Bolin a weird doll of his character which she gives him. The gang insist on a small room (despite being offered a much better one on account of ‘Nuktuk’ being with them) because it’s across from where they’re staking out a dude who was a betrayer of the Earth Queen and involved with the bad guys (I think). It’s funny seeing them all together in the cramped room, with Naga on her back, lying on the only bed. Korra and Mako are all business with the stakeout, while Bolin’s bored and wants to play whatever their version of chess/checkers is in the Avatar world, which Asami wants to participate in but he dismisses her skills. Of course, then she
wipes the floor with him EVERY TIME, Bolin keeps increasing the amount of Rounds they do until he gets to “17 out of...33?” (having to think for a moment to do the math), then just when it looks like he might win a game, Pabu jumps on the board and scatters all the pieces, eliciting a “WHYYYYYYYYY?!” from Bolin (I can relate, as I ask this question
every day since nothing ever goes right for me) as the head of his doll rolls in front of him.
Meanwhile, the Big Bad is chatting with Korra in the spirit world after they locate the betrayer guy who is meditating/in the spirit world (that is until the Big Bad tosses his spirit into a void, effectively killing his body in the real world...I think). Then Korra has to listen to all the philosophical BS the Big Bad has to spout, he’s part of a secret society called the Red Lotus and he goes all Darth Vader, telling her to join him, but she’s not into that. Turns out he was stalling while ‘water arm lady and lava guy’ (Mako’s names for them) find where they’re hiding. Mako and Bolin stay behind to fight them after sending Asami to ride off on Naga with Korra’s body (as she's still in the spirit world). Bolin wants to trade opponents, since he’s just giving lava guy ammo by hurling rocks at him but then water arm lady beats them both and they’re presented to the Big Bad (who’s gotten out of the spirit world) as Korra wakes up strapped to a trolley/wearing a mask like she’s Hannibal Lecter and Asami informs her that the Earth Queen’s men got them first before the Big Bad’s goon squad could.
Episode 10It’s *still* funny seeing Korra imprisoned like she's Hannibal Lecter in that mask and on a trolley (do they think she eats human flesh? I vaguely recall her breathing fire at one point, so maybe the mask is for that?). Asami talks a guard into chaining her to the wall instead of the floor like he was going to do and because the airship they’re being held in is shoddily made (which Asami can instantly tell, since she’s an expert), she’s able to break the metal bar she’s chained to once the guard leaves, free Korra, then make a hole in the floor which she crawls out of, telling Korra to distract the guard, which she does when he comes to the room outside and Asami’s suddenly behind him, knocking him out. Korra then gets carried away taking out other guards and consequently stuffs the ship (basically saying it’s not her fault that it’s shit-made). They crash in a desert, the remaining crew are not happy and there’s a giant sand shark that’s going to swallow them whole. Luckily, Asami knows how to fix things, they work on the airship, but just as it’s ready...the sand shark bites it, breaking the airship into pieces, but then Asami has an idea to use the parts of the ship to build a ‘sand-sailer’ which Korra propels along by blasting air into its sails as they’re chased by the sand shark that at one point almost swallows them whole until Korra blasts its throat with fire (giving it a severe case of dry-mouth, no doubt), saving them all. The guards and their leader think they’ve been in the desert too long, as when they arrive at their destination Old Man Zuko’s DRAGON is lying out the front, sleeping. Korra meets up with Old Man Zuko, her dad and Lin (after Naga jumps on her, licking her, and she responds by asking whether Naga thought they weren’t coming back. I thought to myself when watching, “Well, it’s not like you can
blame Naga for thinking that, Korra, since you leave her behind a lot of the time.”). Earlier in the episode, which I forgot to mention, Naga roared at Lin who turned up and then she gave her treats to go away - so FINALLY Naga got the treats Korra failed to give her last episode.
Elsewhere, Bolin’s been chatting with water arm lady and lava guy about all that time they spent locked up and how they imagined stories for the guards to pass the time, then Bolin does the same for them and he gets ‘two out of three’ right says lava guy (one of the things Bolin made up in his head about them was that there was something going on between water arm lady and lava guy). Mako then tells his bro not to make friends with the bad guys. Speaking of bad guys, they want Korra and strike a deal with the Earth Queen, but then the Big Bad creates an air sphere around the Earth Queen's head and sucks all her air away. Guess she’s dead now.*shrug* (I was amused when doing my Google image searching for this season that apparently an ad for
SpongeBob SquarePants came up on the screen during the original airing of this episode that was both ill-timed and also kinda perfect given how hated the Earth Queen was by pretty much EVERYONE).
The bad guys free prisoners, break down walls and supposedly give the place ‘to the people’. Meanwhile, Mako had been encouraging Bolin to metal-bend them out of their cells they were thrown in, but despite him not being able to, another random prisoner said he believed in him too (I was amused by Bolin saying something like “Thank you, Mako and other prisoner man person.”), but then everyone lets out a groan of disappointment when Bolin can’t metal-bend no matter how hard he tries (there’s another funny moment with one voice asking whether they brought toilet paper).
Episode 11Funny stuff:
Bolin picking up his and Mako’s grandma to make her leave since she won’t do so, her mistaking Asami for Korra upon meeting them both and complimenting her, then Mako introducing
actual Korra and his grandma just saying she’s a muscular girl, then the awkwardness that ensues when she asks why Mako’s not dating either of them.
Bolin on the radio to Meelo, who’s being a little shit and saying there’s no Bolin available to talk to, Bolin losing it, Korra shoving him away and sternly saying over the radio, “This is your commanding officer” who Meelo actually
respects and he immediately fetches Tenzin.
Pabu appearing on Bolin’s shoulder and his delayed reaction to the reunion (while his grandma expresses disgust at witnessing her grandson kissing what she thinks is some ‘rat thing’) and at the same time Naga jumping onto Mako and licking his mouth (which, unlike Bolin and Pabu licking
his mouth, Mako’s just not into).
Less funny stuff:
Korra’s warning to Tenzin comes too late, the bad guys attack him, his family and the air-benders-in-training. It’s Bumi and Kya vs lava guy and water arm lady (who goes all Doctor Octopus with the water arms, creating more than just two this time, and all I could think was, “Stop supplying her with water, Kya!”). Once his siblings have been badly beaten, Tenzin takes on ALL the bad guys by himself and they’re so severely beating his arse that it’s hidden behind a wall with us just hearing the sounds of it. For a second I’d worried that the combustion bitch just blew up a herd of baby bison (but she just scared them away, as confirmed by Tenzin in the next episode). Kai draws the bad guys away or whatever, is shot down but luckily one baby bison comes to his rescue (well...luckily for
Kai, not luckily for
me as a viewer). While Jinora and the rest of the air-benders-in-training just watched on as Kai fell, I thought to myself “You guys sure none of you can create air to blow underneath him or anything to slow his fall?”. They were kinda useless. Korra encounters Old Man Zuko’s uncle in the spirit world and he tells her Zuko and Aang were close friends and nobody knew Aang like Zuko which is HILARIOUS to me given where I’m currently up to with A:TLA since they couldn’t be
further from being friends. Old Man Zuko’s surprised when Korra tells him she encountered his uncle in the spirit world.
Episode 12Team Avatar are making plans, Bolin has a bird call distraction idea, but Korra’s elected to turn herself over to the bad guys in return for them letting the air-benders-in-training go. There was an amusing moment when Bolin’s freaking out and he says Pabu’s not there to comfort him, then we cut to Pabu playing tug-of-war with Naga over Mako’s red scarf which he gave to his grandma in an earlier episode and she chastises them both. I felt sorry for Naga, who hangs her head in shame. Too many people are bastards to poor Naga. I wish she’d just eat them. Korra’s all “Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!” after she hands herself over, is put in platinum cuffs (so she can’t metal-bend her way out of them) and it’s revealed that what the others
thought were the air-benders-in-training were in fact just mounds of water covered in their cloaks which water arm lady had created as part of the ruse. They rescue the beaten-up Tenzin and lava guy reduces the place (which reminded me of Minas Tirith from LotR) to a lava-covered mountain, Bolin keeps trying to hold back the lava with his earth-bending and he looks pretty done-diddly-done for until suddenly he’s able to lava-bend (thus making up for his total lack of metal-bending skills). I liked seeing Korra fight whilst still shackled, as she did a lot of blasting her enemies using her feet and other different sort of moves since her hands/arms weren’t free.
Kai flies his baby bison that saved him last episode to go pick up Tenzin, Mako, Asami
and Bolin (which I thought was a bit much) and this makes the poor bison react with an “Oof!” at the weight of carrying FIVE people. Then when they land (with Bolin getting to use his bird call after all), Tenzin’s reunited with
his old bison and it's forced to carry even MORE people (quit it with the animal cruelty, you jerks!), but not before Kai keeps trying to get the others’ attention as they’re discussing how to find Korra since he knows where to go (Mako later apologises for giving him a hard time on occasion and Kai says he probably deserved it, which Mako agrees with - making me like Mako even
more, since he wasn’t soft on the kid like everyone else. I just wish he hadn’t felt the need to apologise). I enjoyed the epic fighting with the various bad guys, and there was one rather ‘dark’ moment with Lin’s sister sending metal (which was her own armour) flying and wrapping around the head of the ‘third-eyed freak’ (Lin’s words), and while we don’t actually
see it happen, obviously she was powering up to explode Lin but did wound up doing it to herself instead (which makes the Big Bad sad...but me exceedingly happy!).
Then, because the last thing he apparently cared about is now gone, it somehow lets him be free to ‘become air’ - which, according to the commentary for the episode, is the highest form of air-benderdom or whatever. We get funny reactions from his two remaining fellow bad guys, as well as Lin and her sister, as he flies away. Not-Minas Tirith turns into Mount Doom with all the lava covering it, at some point (I forget exactly when) the Big Bad sent Korra’s dad over a cliff after fighting him, but a metal-bender Head of Security woman grabbed him and she wants to join the others on their mission, but Lin says 'no'. The last shot of the episode is Korra (who was taken when the Big Bad flew away) suspended by chains in a big green area that almost looks like a void (which reminded me of the Season 3 ending of
Supernatural when Dean Winchester was hanging from meat hooks suspended by chains in a greenish Hell) with her limbs splayed in an X shape.
The guys on the episode commentary said they couldn’t do that with Aang in an episode of A:TLA liked they’d originally wanted to, but tried again after apparently SpongeBob Fuckface got to do it in an episode and the guy from this show complained, so they were able to get away with it this time on TLoK. How weird the kids' network must be to think someone hanging in an X shape is 'too much'. Though I'm highly amused that I stumbled across what was apparently a rivalry of sorts that went on between Korra and SpongeBob after ads for his show would come up onscreen at inappropriate times during her show. It appears someone thought Korra deserved a little revenge for that...
Episode 13/Season finalWhen we left off, Korra was about to have poison liquid come at her after she’d breathed fire at the Big Bad who was saying they both lost someone (Korra
thinks she’s lost her dad, while the Big Bad lost his three-eyed freak lady-love). His plan is he wants Korra to go into the ‘Avatar State’ while water arm lady prepares a water-tentacle-turned-icy-spike that has Korra’s name on it and lava guy opens a lava pit beneath her ON TOP OF the fact that she’s just been poisoned with a metallic-looking liquid, her eyes keep flickering between the bright white of the Avatar State and normal, plus she’s hallucinating the bad guys’ faces turning into the faces of previous Big Bads she’s faced such as Amon, her uncle and the demon dude from last season (this moment reminded me of the ending for the Season 7 premiere of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when The First Evil cycled through every season's Big Bad in reverse order). There’s one close-up shot of Korra’s face looking all sweaty and wide-eyed that I thought was kinda freaky, she’s not staying in the Avatar State long enough for the bad guys to off her (which, if they achieve, will end the Avatar line since she already lost all her previous Avatar selves in last season’s final), she’s fighting it, but she also puts up a good fight against the bad guys - which Jinora sees, as she’s astral-projecting or whatever from where she’s being held prisoner with the other air-benders-in-training, while Bumi and Kya are still pretty messed up from their fights and not much use to them. Luckily for the kids, they’ve been left in the care of two inept guards (how typical), and while the more inept of the two gets taken out by a piece of rocky wall (I think by Lin or her sister), Asami takes care of the slightly less inept guard with her electro-glove thing that she’s
still using and some fancy kick-arse moves (I suppose they had to throw her character a bone, since she hadn’t had much in the way of any action scenes lately).
Korra and the Big Bad engage in one huge epic fight, with her propelling herself along with fire from her feet like Iron Man. Unfortunately for her, she keeps getting hurled into rough rocky surfaces again and again and it takes its toll as does the poison she’s been infected with. Elsewhere, Bolin's showing lava guy that *he* can now lava-bend too, while Mako versus water arm lady who’s doing her Doctor Octopus trick again with the many water tentacles she’s created, but then Mako electrocutes her and she pretty much looks toast. Meanwhile, lava guy decides that if he’s going down, he’s taking the brothers with him and he collapses everything...but, naturally, the bros escape and so the foolish bad guy just ended up offing himself for nothing (this often seems to be the case with bad guys who think they’re taking out the heroes with them when they go suicidal but it NEVER goes the way they planned). Korra puts up a hell of a fight against the Big Bad, looking cool as she does so, but Jinora leads the air-benders-in-training to making a tornado that pulls her and the last remaining bad guy who Korra wraps the chain attached to her shackles around the leg of as she falls so he gets pulled to earth with her and those already on the ground immediately lock him in rock. The poison’s killing Korra (plus the fact that her enemy used that same sphere-of-oxygen-sucking trick on her that he'd used on the Earth Queen), but Jinora says it’s metal-based and so Lin’s sister extracts it from Korra's body using her metal-bending skills and the bad guy’s not happy about that, but Bolin thankfully shuts him up by sticking a sock in his mouth (I saw one comment on the IMDB page for the episode from someone who wasn’t pleased with this treatment of the villain, but I honestly believe that some bad guys who NEVER SHUT UP really
need a good shutting up, so I was thankful to Bolin for obliging, Speaking of Bolin, earlier when he was reunited with Opal, I was amused at how he just shoved her mother out of the way to hug the girl he fancied).
We cut to two or three weeks later, Korra’s in a wheelchair and Asami’s making the finishing touches to her hair/holding her hand in support, as poor Korra looks not only broken physically, but also mentally/emotionally, she can barely muster up a brave face for everyone as they all go to watch Jinora getting anointed as the Air-bender Master or whatever (she’s now bald with an arrow on her head like Aang). The President, who’s still a jerk despite him attempting to ‘make nice’ with Korra, basically says (after Korra's gone), “Well...the current Avatar’s pretty fucked, who’ll look after us
now?” and we end the episode/season on a final shot of a very glum-looking Korra shedding a tear.
While I appreciate this show going to that ‘dark’ sort of place where it illustrates the lasting effects/impact Korra’s ordeal has had on her, it’s still a pretty depressing ending and I HATE seeing her all broken like this (though I’m sure her haters LOVED it, being the arseholes that they are). One thing I’ve always thought about this show is that it feels a bit more ‘mature’ than A:TLA, and that held true with this season final episode. While some claimed Season 2 was the ‘weakest’ season of this show, thus meaning the other three were supposedly ‘better’, I’ll say that this season was a slight improvement over Season 2...but I still like Season 1 the best so far. I enjoy this show the most when it just focuses on the ‘core four’ of Korra, Mako, Bolin & Asami (with occasional Tenzin thrown in). It’s getting to the stage where there are almost
too many characters amongst the good guys to keep track of. Anyway, hopefully the show avoids the pitfalls of many a show before (and after) it by managing to have an actual
good (if not great) final season rather than a sucky one. *fingers crossed*