Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the greatest TV shows of all-time, and to this day stands as my absolute favorite series. It has outstanding characters, the most amazing story, and it's achieved a perfect balance of action, adventure, drama, and comedy. Mix this all in with a teaspoon of cactus juice, and you've got the makings for a damn-near perfect show. I was first introduced to this show, ironically, thanks to the piece of shit fuck-up that is M. Night Shyamalan's theatrical addition to the franchise, The Last Airbender. I was 10-years-old and couldn't identify a bad movie from a sky bison's asshole, so I became obsessed with the initial concept of the franchise. Shortly thereafter, I started watching the show, and even at that young age I quickly realized the movie was shit in comparison. However, it wasn't until I revisited the series a couple years later, after my childhood obsession with the franchise had waned, that I realized the show's ingenious writing. This more analytical rediscovery was just in time, in-fact, for the franchise to be revamped in the form of its sequel series, The Legend of Korra.

I was intrigued by the concept of the show in having it focus on the Avatar after Aang in a more futuristic setting, so come April 14th, 2012, I was stoked to check out the series premiere. Sadly, while I did watch the two episodes that aired on that day, I never followed through with continuing the series. I didn't hate the show by any means, but I discovered early on that this series just didn't seem very interesting at all. I guess what turned me off initially was the second episode's focus on Mako and Bolin, where I could see the series' early plague of love triangle bullshit starting to take shape. Immediately, I figured this was going nowhere fast, and made an subconscious decision not to continue. Following that for the next four years, I only caught glimpses of some episodes from the first two seasons while channel-flipping, and later spoiled Avatar character cameos in the series by watching clips on YouTube.

About three months ago, I re-watched Avatar: The Last Airbender for the umpteenth time by gradually exposing the series to some of my family members. They seemed to enjoy the series as much as I did as we wrapped it up last week, but after that I thought to myself: "I should probably watch The Legend of Korra." Bear in mind, by this time the series was over and people had generally good things to say about the show, so I wasn't being discouraged by too many fronts. The next day, I bought Book One and marathoned the entire season in one sitting. Within the next couple of days, I scrounged out Book Two and Three, and by this past weekend completed my collection by purchasing and finishing Book Four. And so, I finally watched The Legend of Korra.

It's not bad.

Book One: Air

By the first season, the series already has the intrigue factor of seeing the world from Avatar in a state of progression. The Avatar World has adapted its own form of New York City in it's own interpretation of the Roarin' Twenties. We also meet Korra, who is the current Avatar by this point, and it's nice to see a take on the messiah that isn't a carbon-copy of Aang. The previous Avatar was initially reluctant about his role, and was a compassionate symbol of peace. This Avatar, on the other hand, was a brash hot-head who was probably too self-indulgent for her own good. At least she's a tolerable cocky character, unlike Rainbow Dash. We also meet great characters like Tenzin, Lin, and Bolin, and are faced with a menacing threat in the form of Amon. From episode three onward, you can tell the show is going to be a lot more political than its preceding show, giving it a face-value sense of maturity. The arc overall is satisfying and reaches a generally solid conclusion.

However, the first season is plagued, and I mean plagued by some A-class love triangle bullshit. In this season, Mako and Asami are the most bland characters ever to be forced into the main cast of one of Bryke's series. I hate to compare this show to Avatar, but seeing as this is the follow-up, I think it's in an important comparison. Look at each character in the main cast of Avatar. Each character in the main cast is individual and has their own unique personalities, filled with all the flaws and quirks that make them identifiable from the get-go. These invite you to want to learn more about them, and see them grow and achieve their full potential by the end of the series. Neither Mako nor Asami remotely scratch this surface at all. I've checked, and even the wiki can just barely describe what these characters are like. They're just pretty faces to add more foils to the first season's love triangle bullshit, and for the most part, they stay that way throughout the series. Outside of the ingenious "Bolin loves Korra loves Mako loves Asami but might love Korra who might love Bolin" arcs that clutter up the middle of the season (and seriously, Amon's arc stops dead in its tracks for two episodes in the middle just so we can focus on it), my other major complaint with the season is its rushed ending. I'm sure plenty have discussed this, but the last five minutes of season one consist of "Korra's bending is gone, Aang shows up as a vision, some light happens, now she has her bending back, and she can give her bending back to everyone else." No consequences whatsoever. Just how I like my finales. The rest of the season is good, but unlike the previous show's streak of practically flawless quality, Book One's first impressions wouldn't have exactly invited my continued interest a few years back.

Book Two: Spirits

The second season did introduce some series-lasting highlights, I must admit. First, it introduced all-star characters in the form of Varrick and Eska, the former possibly being my favorite character out of the series. Secondly, it contained the powerhouse two-parter "Beginnings", which explains the story of the first Avatar and how the cycle began. Not only are these episodes informative, but also very intriguing as stories alone. Thirdly, I really liked Tenzin's character development in this season, being possibly the only example of good character building in Book Two. Finally, its finale spawned the plot-points that would become vital for the third and fourth seasons to exist and work well, though that doesn't exactly stand for the quality of the finale itself. I also very much enjoyed seeing...

Unfortunately, Book Two did not improve on the first season at all, and Spirits has to be the worst season of both Korra and the franchise overall. Its Civil War arc is confused, cluttered, and mangled in with even more love triangle bullshit. Its villain, Unaloq, is so dull and lacking of any vigor that he's entirely forgettable. Mix this with some tired "brotherly vengeance" plotlines, some character regression (Lin is a terrible character in this season), and the most deus ex machina of light beam fight conclusions, and boom! You have the most passable season in the Avatar franchise. The worst part is probably that you can't just skip this season given what happens at the end of it, as well as some of the real highlights that occur. So you're forced to sit through this season just to make it to the good stuff. I mean, I don't rate this season lower than I did the first season of MLP, but it's a bigger disappointment coming from the creators of Avatar.

Granted, I understand why these first two seasons weren't up-to-par. Nickelodeon was seriously dicking them around with how many episodes they were supposed to write. I heard this was supposed to be a one-season show and then Nick decided they should write 14 more episodes. The creators had no idea where to go and started throwing shit together. At least there's a reason for it and we can't just assume the writers were being shitheads on purpose. And again, there's still all the highlights above, so there's something of merit in Book Two. It's not a bad season, but it's definitely the sloppiest, making it the worst.

Book Three: Change

FINALLY! A fucking great season! What a comeback. While Avatar's first season is inherently better given its place in the show's story, Book Three of Korra is definitely as good as that season in general. For once, the villains are entertaining and enjoyable, and their motives seem both realistic and threatening. Korra finally starts going through some serious character development at this point, as she starts getting her ass kicked and her shortcomings start tallying up. And then we've got the Bei Fong plotlines, which I love considering Lin was dealt a shitty hand in Book Two, all surrounded by huge changes in the world. With the Earth Kingdom falling apart and the challenge of the spirits and the return of...

...this season has a lot at stake and a lot to love. You might question my logic of forcing myself to watch the first two seasons even though I knew they weren't that great, and that's because I had some promise from reading the opinions of fans about Book Three being an improvement. This, to my surprise, came through in really nice ways. Although Mako and Asami are still about as interesting as a box of packing peanuts, and unfortunately that never changes, at least the rest of the characters are developing reasons to care. Even Tenzin's children, who I didn't give much thought to in the first two seasons, start integrating themselves well into the story. And for once, I have very few complaints, as Zaheer's contrived flight ability is as close to issue I can find other than some dull spots here and there. Book Three is just a barrel full of goodness overall, which was fresh and beneficial for the series.

And now for some spoiler-y gushing:

Book Four: Balance

And of all four seasons, I think the final one has to be the best. While I think the third season had the better threat as Kuvira wasn't quite as engaging as Zaheer, and also the superior finale, this season contained the greatest development for both Korra and the Bei Fong family. Even given Asami's lack of personality, she managed to conjure up some sort of likable story by this point, and I found what happened to her in the finale heart-wrenching. Balance doesn't quite reach the heights of Avatar's Earth and Fire either, but it still manages to just peak out above Water. Once again, Varrick really steals the show in many respects, even when it came down to his conclusion in the finale, and as I said before, Korra is probably the most interesting she's ever been in the series by this point. No saving Mako, though, he's doomed to being the blandest main character of the Avatar franchise unfortunately.

I only really have any problems with the resolve of the series. While Avatar included the mildly controversial energybending in its finale, that conclusion had some build-up and made sense with the morals and circumstances of both its main character and the series overall, making for a fantastic finale. This one, however, felt more on the Spirits side of deus ex machina light-show endings. It wasn't all-out lazy bullshit, but the resolve did come down to "spirit-y magic stuff saved the day" in the end. This is why I say Change had the better finale because, even though it was open-ended, the battle's climax felt realistic and worked within the parameters of what was built up. I wouldn't call the finale a let-down, but it unfortunately wasn't the ending I thought fit for the series. Though, the rest of the season is great, and I think everything comes out okay in the end, so there's no major harm done.

Now, for some more spoiler-y gushing:

Conclusion

In the end, the series is okay, and now that I've seen it through-and-through, I would recommend it to fans of the original series. Not only are there plenty of treats for Avatar fanatics, but some of the new characters and the events that transpire, especially towards the end, are thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining, and clever. Sure, you're gonna have to chug through the first two seasons, and maybe that's enough to turn you off altogether. On top of that, there are some problems with the series even in the long run with the blandness of Mako and Asami and how bending seems to come so unnaturally easy to everyone, completed with the trivial issues with each season individually. Still, for all that's said and done, I wasn't disappointed in Korra by series end. It might be something I take a while to come back to, but I still feel satisfied and accomplished having finished it.

The Legend of Korra is not the masterpiece that Avatar: The Last Airbender was and remains today, but it's hard to expect it to be. Going into this show with the high expectations of its predecessor is a big mistake. The Legend of Korra is good, but Avatar: The Last Airbender is still one of the greatest TV shows of all-time. Maybe I should do some editorials on it someday.............