It’s time for the final episodes!

This has been a great season.  Really couldn’t help but watch all of it ASAP.

We start out with the recap and learn the narrator’s name is Shiro Shinobi.  Wait, he’s a ninja?!

Anyway, first episode of the disc: It’s the recap episode.  I can skip this, right?

The framing device is basically Mako talking about the past to Wu (and the rest of his family slowly gathering to listen in).  The first half of the episode covers the relationship drama (and the villains of the first three books are treated as afterthoughts).

The framing device for the… next 15% of the episode is Korra talking to Asami about how she doesn’t seem to be making a difference in the world as the Avatar.  Asami talks about all the good she did despite what she thinks are her failings.

The framing device for the rest of the episode is Varrick pitching the true story of Nuktuk / Bolin as a future mover.  True, he’s pitching it to the former prisoners.  Ant to be fair… Varrick is a spectacular showman.

Varrick gives no shits about the actual truth and combines elements from all three Books into a single epic story with Bolin as the star.

“Never let truth get in the way of a good story, kid!”  Yeah, that’s pretty much the best possible line to end this episode with.

Next episode!

Bolin and Varrick arrive to warn everyone of the Spirit Vine superweapon just as Korra senses that Kuvira’s army is taking vines from The Swamp (the destruction of the Swamp seems to be causing the roots in Republic City to go crazy and abduct people).  Opal still can’t forgive Bolin for aligning with Kuvira even though he didn’t know about everything Kuvira did and it wouldn’t have taken much effort for Opal to tell him, so… that’s on you, Opal.

In order to counter the threat of Kuvira’s superweapon, Raiko gets Varrick and Asami to join forces.

Korra can’t go into the Spirit World because of mental blocks, so she figures she needs to face her fears directly and speak to Zaheer.  Since Kuvira is the kind of dictator Zaheer was against, he helps Korra break through her mental blocks and meditate into the Spirit World, where she successfully frees all the abducted people.  We… still don’t know why they were abducted.  That’s just what Spirit Vines do, I guess.

Bolin tries one last time to win Opal over, and she gives him a chance: if he joins her in a mission to Zaofu to free her family.

Next episode!

Lin, Opal and Bolin arrive near Zaofu and meet up with Toph, who tells them the citizens were moved to a nearby prison.  Bolin points them in the direction of the prison because… he used to work for Kuvira, duh.

Back in Republic City, Varrick unveils his plan to stop Kuvira’s superweapon: A FLYING MECHASUIT!

Team Beifong sneaks into the prison while everyone is at the superweapon exhibition.  Oh, and Lin still has family crap to deal with.

Kuvira finds out that Zhu Li sabotaged the weapon… and that’s on Zhu Li for keeping evidence on her.

Kuvira orders Zhu Li be tied up in the city they’re about to blow up.  Soon, the world will witness the firepower of this full ARMED and FUNCTIONAL battle station!  Or… spirit shooty thing.  Opal sees this go on. Will she do something?  Do it, Opal!  Save Zhu Li!  THEN MAKE OUT! *cough* *ahem*  Er… sorry, where were we?

Ah.  Back to the prison.  They manage to break out, then Opal and Bolin go on to save Zhu Li.  And surprisingly, Bolin has a LOT to say in Zhu Li’s defense.  Zhu Li kinda repays it by having Bolin’s back in winning Opal over.  Didn’t know they knew each other that well.

But it seems the superweapon is ready, and Zhu Li plans to attack Republic City in two weeks.  Which naturally means she’s going to ramp up the timetable.

Next episode!

Bolin and Zhu Li warn everyone about the threat to Republic City.  Zhu Li makes amends with Varrick and stops just shy of confessing her love for him, but she demands she be treated as an equal rather than his assistant.  Huh.  Didn’t know she was an Equalist.

Mako sends out a message to all of Republic City to evacuate (and gives VERY specific instructions).  This makes people panic a smidge.  Wu takes over and gives a more convincing and comforting speech.  Huh.  Guess there’s those hidden depths I was hoping for.

Predictably, Kuvira arrives a week early.  And that spirit cannon?

Gotta give it up for Kuvira.  She’s got style, and she out-scienced Varrick.

Raiko fold immediately, but it’s not like anyone else had any strategies that could work immediately.  Korra figures Bataar Jr would know the suit’s weaknesses, so they kidnap him and completely fail to get the info out of him.  So Korra figures an alternative: threaten to keep Bataar away from Kuvira forever unless she turns around and leaves Republic City.  Kuvira has a counter-proposal: kill Bataar and his captors.

Whelp, that’s the end of the series!  Kuvira wins!

…

Wait, there’s two episodes left?  REALLY?  Yeah, no, okay.  I’ll continue.

Next episode!

There are some Hummingbird mecha prototypes at Asami’s office, so the good guys split up.  Meelo comes up with a plan to use paint to blind the giant mecha suit.  Fortunately, it’s not a Dalek, so the plan is effective… for a few seconds, anyway.  Turns out Kuvira thought that might be a problem, so she installed wipers.  But the distraction was enough for the other benders to limit its movement by tying up its legs.  Impressive, but ultimately zero damage was done and they’re forced to retreat.

The Hummingbirds don’t seem combat ready, so Varrick goes full mad scientist and creates a giant EM pulse generator to stop the Mecha Suits, but the Spirit Vine-powered giant suit is unphased.

Raiko frees Hiroshi Sato, who comes up with a plan: use plasma saws capable of cutting the giant Mecha Suit’s platinum armor to cut a hole large enough for someone to get inside and shut down the suit from within.

Meanwhile, Wu continues to show off his leadership skills by using Badgermoles to dig tunnels under Republic City to lead remaining evacuees out.

The final fight begins as the plasma saws are installed on the Hummingbirds.  Asami seems to have reconciled with her father proper, and Zhu Li finally gets what she wants.

The Hummingbirds start finding spots to cut in, but the giant suit is more flexible than they thought.  Korra uses ice to freeze the suit’s arms long enough for Hiroshi to cut through.  There isn’t enough time to do it safely, so he forcibly ejects Asami from the Hummingbird and finishes the job before going splat.

The ejection scene is short but perfectly done.  Not a single wasted frame, and I actually shed a tear for once.  You’d be surprised how much more you appreciate scenes like these when you take frame by frame for the purpose of making .gifs.  You notice the little things that break your heart.

FINAL EPISODE!

Korra’s team wrecks shit up in the arm and render the cannon useless.  Kuvira has no choice but to go all Piccolo and tear off the suit’s arm to get rid of some baggage and maybe kill the intruders.

Kurra breaks into the cockpit, and the final showdown begins.  Unfortunately, Korra forgot that Kuvira is a fucking badass.

Mako and Bolin try to shut down the Spirit Vine core, but the manual controls won’t work.

Mako decides to go all heroic sacrifice and charge the core with electricity to make it go boom.  Interestingly, before he shoots lightning, he does the same motions Zuko did when training to redirect lightning.

The explosion tears apart the giant suit and interrupts Korra and Kuvira’s fight.  Kind of a cheap victory there, Korra.

The battle seems lost for Kuvira, but she just won’t give up.  She mans the abandoned spirit cannon and goes nuts before losing control.  She’s almost destroyed by her own weapon when Korra steps in and saves her.

The resulting explosion creates a new Spirit Portal in Republic City.

We learn that deep down, Kuvira’s motivations stem from her being an orphan and wanting to create a nation without vulnerability.  Totally unnecessary, but whatever.

In the wrap-up, we have Kuvira’s arrest, Varrick and Zhu Li’s wedding, Prince Wu saying he’s going to turn the Earth Kingdom into a republic, and the prologue to the Legend of Korra adventure game, Korra and Asami Hit the Road.

So yeah, we just kinda randomly get an epilogue where Korra and Asami go on a vacation to the Spirit World.  It’s so sudden, it feels like an ending right out of… uh… well, to be honest, since it’s still fresh in mind, May Club.  Or Nocturnal Illusion.  Let’s go with Nocturnal Illusion.  Almost every ending starts with you picking a girl to save, the screen fades to black, and then we see “3 Months Later,” and the main character and the girl are out doing some random thing together.  That’s what this epilogue feels like.  It feels like a tacked-on ending from a hentai game, but with no sex.

If anything, I’m complaining about the lack of sex.

So that’s The Legend of Korra.  As usual, I’m thoroughly impressed by the action and conflict of the arc and how it ramped up.  The relationship drama continues to be the worst parts, but it got a lot less focus, so it wasn’t as distracting, but still a little annoying.  And hey, I actually have no complaints about how Varrick and Zhu Li was handled!  Wow… it’s a miracle!

Kinda wish we got more from Kuvira like how she hooked up with Bataar and why she was so charismatic, and maybe even just how much of the Earth Kingdom truly supported her.  We got a taste of that in the beginning with Wu supporters and louder Kuvira supporters, but then it just dropped off.  Until she tried to kill Bataar, I wasn’t entirely sold on Kuvira being evil; that was the most evil thing she did onscreen.  Maybe if we actually saw the reeducation camps and slave labor it would be more effective.  Just how often did she have to resort to force to subdue cities?  I think what ended up happening for me was I really loved everything I thought Kuvira was, but not enough time was spent showing what Kuvira was.  Still, she’s probably my favorite villain of the entire franchise.

But that ending.  The stuff with Korra and Asami I thought was fine for what it is.  I’m just bothered that the villain of the entire book was very much connected to the Earth Kingdom, yet we spent zero time in the epilogue in the Earth Kingdom or getting to know about the people there.  And it’s not like there’s no connections to be had there.  There’s LOADS of potential there, and considering this is the last book, I feel a little cheated.  Reconstruction of Zaofu’s domes.  Permanently tearing down the rings of Ba Sing Se.  Have Toph back in the Swamp and show vines regrowing around her.  Maybe have Kai help an orphanage out. (Seriously, Kai just disappeared early and never showed up again. I get that he sucked in the last book, but I didn’t want him gone – I wanted him IMPROVED.  And he mentioned that he and Jinora have been doing great, yet they didn’t have a single scene together!)  There was A LOT MORE we could have done to give the Earth Kingdom some strong closure, and a couple lines from Prince Wu doesn’t cut it.  There was a SHITLOAD wrong with the Earth Kingdom.  It was CHAOTIC.  Give us more than a handwave.

I know it was just a guess that I didn’t hit, but I’m disappointed Bolin didn’t amount to more by the end.  I feel like there have been hints in the earlier books that Bolin would be destined for greatness.  He’s a street-smart guy that earned his own fame, he learned how to Lavabend, and he’s a down-to-earth guy with HUGE charisma.  I thought for sure something big would finally happen for Bolin when he joined with the prisoners (I kinda had my hopes pinned on “resistance leader”), but those guys just plain left and carried my hopes with them.  There’s real potential for Bolin to rise as a “man of the people.”  It wouldn’t be surprising if 20 years down the line he becomes President of Republic City.

Basically, I feel like there’s a lot that can be done with the Legend of Korra characters – magnitudes more than the Last Airbender cast.  It’s why I didn’t feel the need to snatch up The Rift ASAP (I will get it somewhere down the line).  I just feel like if the creators wanted it enough, there could be a healthy future for the Legend of Korra world.  A last hurrah movie would be ideal, and an ongoing comic series would be awesome.

As a final note, I REALLY love the insert that comes with the Book 4 Bluray.  I’d post it on my wall if it weren’t for the crease.  I wish the other ones had inserts like that.  Though if I really wanted a Korra poster, I would prefer one with more characters.  One of the things I love about LoK is its ensemble cast.  It’s surprising how few official posters there are of at least the core of Korra, Mako, Bolin and Asami.  You usually don’t get Asami.