Whew, finally got around to finishing this writeup.  It really does take a while to run through so many episodes in one go.

When we last left our heroes, Bolin was almost assuredly on the path to getting raped by Eska.

Meanwhile, Varrick introduces Bolin to Republic City celebrity nightlife and learns that Bolin has an uncanny ability to play to the masses.

Mako and Korra have a fight over… well, it really doesn’t matter since it’s a surefire sign the writers have given up on the relationship and need a way out.

Korra goes to Varrick to tell him that President Raiko refused to support the south, and Asami is along as well to talk about her company’s imminent going-under, and Varrick brainstorms solutions.  He also drops some truth that is bound to go over the heads of the kiddies.

Varrick then unveils his idea to get President Raiko onboard: propaganda!  Hey, it worked for Amon.

Meanwhile, Tenzin’s family vacation continues, with Meelo trying to teach a lemur he named Poki to do tricks.

Let’s just get the rest of this story out of the way right now: Tenzin teaches Meelo that he needs to be more stern to train properly.  Meelo doesn’t like it, but he follows Tenzin’s directions and… well…

Tenzin realizes what he has created and tells Meelo to play like normal.

Korra decides to go around President Raiko’s head and gets General Iroh to go along with a plan that technically allows him to attack the northern forces without breaking any rules, but Raiko shows up to shut the plan down.  This is because Mako decides his duty is more important than his relationship with Korra… which, to be fair, pretty much is.  Korra’s an overemotional dick.

Bolin has been hired for Varrick’s latest “mover,” a propaganda film about the plight of the Southern Water Tribe, starring Bolin as Nuktuk, Hero of the South.

Fame seems to get to Bolin, but he doesn’t turn into 100% a dick.  Just a strong 75%.

Mako and Korra have a violent breakup at the police station.  But Mako doesn’t have time to deal with Korra’s shit.  There have been a rash of cases where ships have been attacked by Water Tribe, and Mako comes up with a plan to lure an attack by using Asami’s products as bait.

Mako hires some gangsters to help ambush their would-be attackers, but it turns out the gangsters double-crossed them, and Mako and Asami are forced to flee.  They then find out Asami’s remaining stock has been stolen while they were away, and Asami is effectively ruined.

Korra has managed to muster absolutely zero help for the Southern Water Tribe, so she tries to return on her own to provide what little aid she can… but then she gets attacked by Eska and Desna… and then a giant spirit.  She’s left for dead, but washes ashore with… AMNESIA! (DUN DUN DUN!)

Korra gets rescued but needs her memories restored and whatnot, so she is guided to look deep into the Avatar’s past, where she learns about the story of Wan, the First Avatar.

The story of Wan is… pretty freaking amazing.  It starts off small scale with Wan living in a village ruled by a bunch of rich pricks, and Wan comes up with a plan to steal Firebending.

Turns out, there are these Lion Turtles that grant people the ability to bend, and this ability is necessary for humans to defend themselves in the spirit forest.  Wan joins a group on a hunt and receives the Lion Turtle’s blessing, then pretends to have a change of heart during the hunt.  He’s told to go return the gift to the Lion Turtle, but he keeps it instead so he can abuse Firebending against the rich family.  His actions get him banished to the forest, but the Lion Turtle allows him to keep the gift of Firebending to protect himself.

While in the forest, he learns the ways of the spirits and even fights off humans.  But the time comes when he leaves the forest in search for other human settlements.  Along the way, he sees two spirits fighting, and he helps break up the fight.  Turns out the two spirits were the spirit of light, Raava, and the spirit of darkness, Vaatu.  They were supposed to be in eternal struggle and balance, but Wan disturbed that balance, fucking everyone over for all eternity and sparking a massive war between spirits and humans.

Wan takes it upon himself to restore balance by learning how to use all four elements and attempts to seal away Vaatu.  Neither he nor Raava can do it alone, so he fuses his spirit with Raava, becoming the Avatar.

Vaatu is sealed away, Wan divides the world into the human world and spirit world, and he continues on his path to maintain balance.

…and then he grows old and dies in an era of war, completely unable to achieve his goals.

I really just can’t say enough about how amazing the story of Wan is.  It has a very mythic, epic, storybook-like feel to the whole thing, which it should, and it’s executed perfectly.

Meanwhile in real time, we learn that Bolin is probably a rapist.

While visiting the Nuktuk set, Mako finds a detonator for the pyrotechnics and realizes it’s the same detonator used in the recent ship attacks.  He goes to confront Varrick about it, but finds Asami has just completed a deal with him to save her company.

Korra makes her way to the same Air Temple where Tenzin is having his vacation and asks for his help getting to the Spirit World so she can close the portals and prevent Vaatu from being freed.  You see, if the portals are open during Harmonic Convergence (planets all aligned), Vaatu gets freed for some reason.  And Unalaq is all for that.  For… power, I guess.

Despite all his attempts, Tenzin can’t bring Korra to the spirit world.  He eventually is forced to admit that he never personally went to the spirit world, despite being an “expert” on it.

Unexpectedly, Jinora reveals that she is friends with spirits, and the spirits lead them to an old unused ruin that should help them reach the spirit world.  And it is Jinora, not Tenzin, who is destined to guide Korra there.

Meanwhile, Varrick makes it clear he knows Mako knows about him.  Then Mako kinda gets framed and accused of working with the Triads to steal Asami’s stock.  It’s at this point I facepalm because at every single turn, Lin Beifong chews Mako out for, well, being a better detective than the two doofuses she employed.  Just shows she’s a terrible judge of character, which is something I didn’t expect from someone who once dated Tenzin.  Tenzin’s the man.

*ahem*  Tangent.

So, in the spirit world, Korra and Jinora get separated, and Korra reverts into a childlike state, then proceeds to be part of an Alice in Wonderland type tea party where she learns about the true nature of the spirit world.  Oh, and she was guided there by Iroh.  No, not that Iroh.  THE Iroh.

Meanwhile, Jinora ends up in the library of Wan Shi Tong and manages to get the big ol’ owl’s permission to do some research on the spirit world and find out where Vaatu is sealed.

Also: Professor Zei, how are you?

But it turns out the big library owl supports Unalaq’s cause and practically hands Jinora over to him to use as a hostage.

So yeah, just mentally insert “but it doesn’t matter, because Jinora is kidnapped” at the end of every sentence in the following paragraph.

Korra learns to overcome her fears about the spirit world, which is kind of necessary, since the spirit world is sensitive to emotions.  She returns to her proper form and locates the portal between worlds and proceeds to close it.

But Unalaq is there to prevent Korra from putting an end to his plan to free Vaatu, and he reveals he has Jinora and forces her to open the other portal.  Korra has no choice but to follow Unalaq’s orders, return to the human world, and tell Tenzin that his daughter’s spirit is trapped in the spirit world, which probably will result in her physical body dying unless something’s done quickly.

Meanwhile, in Republic City, Varrick premieres the newest Nuktuk movie in an effort to convince President Raiko to support the Southern Water Tribe.  During the movie, terrorists attempt to kidnap President Raiko, but they are foiled by Bolin, proving himself to be a real-life hero.  The would-be kidnappers reveal that they were hired by Varrick, and Varrick is finally arrested.  Lin Beifong then realizes that everything Mako was trying to tell her was true and promotes him to Detective.  Surprisingly, Mako accepts and doesn’t tell her to shove it because he’s better.  So uh… good for Mako.

Soon after, Korra returns to Republic City and tells Raiko that they need to attack Unalaq, as he is planning to effectively destroy the entire world by releasing, y’know, an ancient dark spirit.  Raiko responds by saying he won’t spare any of his resources since he wants to focus on protecting Republic City.  Y’know, to completely ineffectively defend the populace of one city during a global disaster instead of preventing the disaster in the first place.

Oh, and Korra’s amnesia isn’t completely gone.  She forgot that she broke up with Mako, and Mako kinda goes along with it.

I couldn’t figure out which disappointed Asami pic to use, so I went with both of them.

Without Raiko’s support, the gang has to come up with a way to help the Southern Water Tribe.  They end up talking to Varrick, who gives them permission to use his warship, the Zhu Li.  Yes, he has a ship named after his assistant.

Armed and ready as they’ll ever be, the gang heads to the Southern Water Tribe.  Kya tries her best to keep Jinora’s body alive for when they retrieve her spirit.

In what is perhaps the dumbest move possible, they leave Naga behind despite the sheer fact that Naga has a perfect battle record so far.

The gang attempts to sneak attack from the air, but they quickly get shot down and captured.

That is… most of the gang gets captured, but Bumi is still out there.  And almost gets eaten or killed or whatever by a dark spirit… until he pummels it to submission!

Okay, yeah, no, that didn’t happen.  Actually, he uses a flute to pacify the spirit and recruit it to the good side, then the two, along with Naga and Pabu, break through security and rescue the gang.  Because NAGA.

Korra makes it through the portal, but it’s too late.  Harmonic Convergence is here, and Vaatu is free.

So it’s up to Korra to seal Vaatu away while her allies prevent Unalaq from stepping through the portal.

Meanwhile, Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi enter the Spirit World to try to rescue Jinora.

Korra is on the verge of sealing Vaatu away, but Unalaq makes it through and fuses with Vaatu, becoming the Dark Avatar.  Because balance.

Tenzin uses his knowledge of the Spirit World to find Jinora, but not without first beating his father complex.  And that’s all I’ll have to say about that.

Unalaq kinda curb stomps Korra and extracts the spirit of Raava out of her, then he attacks Raava directly, and we see the previous Avatars being wiped out of existence one after the other until every single one disappears.

So uh… whoops.  Just went and blew up a few thousand years of history and knowledge right there.

With no one left to rival his power, Unalaq escapes into the human world and… starts smashing shit.

Varrick takes advantage of the destruction and escapes with Zhu Li.

Korra seems defeated, but Tenzin suggests Korra meditate in Vaatu’s former tree-prison and connect with her own spirit to find the power necessary to defeat the Dark Avatar.

It’s… about as BS as it sounds.

So what follows is a battle near Republic City, between two giant spirits.  Like some kind of spiritual kaiju battle.

For, like the third time so far, Jinora has to save Korra’s ass.

Together with Jinora, Korra manages to reach into Unalaq and take out the fragment of Raava that still exists, re-fuses with Raava, then does that spirit-calming light thingy that never worked out for her for the entire series, but it finally works here.

And finally, Jinora’s spirit returns to her body, which, as far as I’m concerned, is what this battle was really about.

Also in the aftermath, Mako and Korra have a mutual breakup for real this time.  Because… the writers have no clue how to write a lasting relationship.

Oh yeah, at some point during the final fight, Bolin admitted he still has feelings for Eska, which was a ploy to break free, except not really.  They break up as well, but at least that plot point gets concluded for good.

Korra is once again the Avatar, but the connection to the previous Avatars has been lost forever.  Though I assume she has become the start of a new cycle, so… good for her, I guess.

Korra’s father Tonraq becomes the chief of the southern tribe, so he’s got that going for him.  And finally, Korra announces she’s going to keep the portals open and force humans and spirits to live together.  So deal with it.

Phew.

Overall, this was a huge step up from Book 1, though with a much less interesting main villain in Unalaq, and even less interesting (but far more threatening) villain in Vaatu.  The new additions to the cast were superb, though Eska and Desna kind felt like if Mei were split into two and painted blue.  Bolin and Asami were just kinda there in the side at times, with Bolin just kinda floating around being the comedy character with almost no substance, and Asami ALMOST became her own character before once again being roped into the Korra/Mako relationship drama and getting nothing out of the ordeal.

Strangely, Korra manages to simultaneously present a nuanced, realistic portrayal of the forces that lead to wars, AND strips a war down to a battle between the forces of good and evil and once again ends on a naive note of the infallible hero deciding what’s best for the world as if nothing will ever go wrong, even though time and again throughout the franchise it’s proven that things rarely go smoothly regardless of the best of intentions.  It’s fascinating how the creators managed to have their cake and eat it too.

So anyway, that concludes Book 2.  Next week, I’ll be doing a Let’s Play of the Legend of Korra video game (or I’ll at least try to).  The game apparently takes place between books 2 and 3, so… wonderful timing.