If anyone cares, first two mins of Balance: Episode 1.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6USlO9BA6p8

 

Season 4 Episode 1 is out.

Spoiler

I never thought I would get sick of the well intentioned extremist antagonist so fast, but that's pretty much been every villain Korra has faced, only they fuck them up somewhere along the line and they become disney villains again. Why this weird middle thing that doesn't work, why not go one route or the other? I am fine with good anti-villains, I am also good with disney villains.

But another "for the greater good, kinda, well no, just kidding, gonna destroy the world" villain I really can't stomach.

Inbe4 the Great Uniter is secretly bankrolling/leading the bandits.

But, I am open to surprises, if it turns out she is just a redherring and we will get another villain.

Apparently, airbenders are useless in air combat against guys who hooked themselves to a rope. Who would have thought? Could have sworn that the ability to manipulate the wind and to fly would give someone an advantage in the sky but what do I know.

Korra's situation is far more interesting. Apparently, it took her some time to recover and she needs to train to regain her strength and combat abilities, as she seems to have been kicked around for six months now in Earth Kingdom underground arenas. I could see some really awesome fanfiction to be written in that period where Korra wanders the world, throwing herself in fights with the desperate hope to regain that part of herself in which she took the most pride in.

Overall, decent start, was miffed with a good chunk of the episode but I admit, I am nitpicking and have to see how things will go from here before truly saying anything.

 

Don't disagree on the Kuvira stuff, it's already coming across as incredibly boring stuff.

Edit: Also, fuck you Kai. You remain as annoying as ever.

 

Spoiler

So this season's pilot is a mixed bag, but looks far better than I thought it'd be. It suffers from the problem we've had before: of the title character getting shafted. Korra has been consistently sidelined and outperformed by other characters, even to the ridiculous extent where she didn't appear in a solid three episodes in a row. With approximately twelve episodes in a season, that was a ridiculous quarter of a season straight without the main character.

But she showed up in the last minute of the pilot, so that's something, I guess. Her dealing with the emotional and physical fallout of events by turning to an underground fighting ring is far more interesting than sitting around moping. I'm hoping she gets involved with seedier and seedier business down that route, until she ends up on the opposite side of a battlefield to Kuvira's army. The ensuing confrontation with Bo Lin could be a great inciting incident to begin snapping her out of it.

And now that I've mentioned Kuvira, let me just say that I love her so far. So far we see a woman attempting to carve out her own kingdom without being a moron about it. She's just methodically and efficiently aquiring power. Which is great. The conflict being set up between the corrupt and useless Earth Kingdom monarchy and the conquering warlord has potential. Neither side is morally right, but neither is morally wrong. The Earth Prince isn't a cruel dictator, just a useless fop. Kuvira isn't violently invading, she's exchanging protection for fealty. Which, in all honesty, has always been the purview of 'good' rulers. Kuvira is using the situation to her advantage without being a dick about it.

Her actions are reflected in her bending sequence, which I also really liked. Minimal, efficient movements. No throwing around huge rocks or gouts of fire. A single motion, and an enemy is incapacitated. Every one of them is then turned to her side. Maximum profit from the situation with minimal effort. I really hope the writers don't fuck it up and turn her into another cheesy wannabe-dictator.

I don't really give a shit about Mako. Never have. I'm glad he's suffering in his new job, but I also find the Earth Prince as annoying as we're supposed to, so I hope there isn't too much focus on him. Bo Lin didn't do much in this episode, but there's a suggestion he's going to be growing into his own person, and is no longer just a comic relief sidekick, which is great.

My hope for this season is that we see Kuvira and her pet business-consultant Varrick build their little empire without doing anything stupid or evil. I'll be pissed if Kuvira is bankrolling the bandits, because that'd be a lame, overdone, and lazy way of doing things. I don't want to see too much of Mako, but Bo Lin might have potential this time around. My interest in the air nation is minimal at this point. The roaming Justice League thing doesn't really do it for me. I really hope that Korra does her own thing for a while. While with the group as a whole, she's constantly being put down by her dad, her teacher, her 'boyfriend', and I'm sick of it. She's the fucking avatar. You'd hardly know it if not for the glowy eyes. I'm hoping this is going to be a good character rebirth moment, and she'll finally build herself up to the badass she should have been from the beginning.

 

Korra's lost muscle mass.

 

Spoiler

If Kuvira does turn out to be the big-bad behind the earth kingdom bandit threat, and is using it as a means to grab power, I will be grossly disappointed, not simply because it's lazy writing, but because it would be super fucking mundane way to close out a series that was originally supposed to be about about spirits and spiritual energy.

 

She was presumably in that wheelchair for quite a while. Muscle atrophy and all that. I wonder about her loss though. Were her bending skills damaged aswell, or is it just that her mental state is messing her up.

 

Spoiler

It'd be nice if some huge external threat rose up, and everyone was forced to reluctantly throw their support behind an ambitious, dubiously power-hungry warlord in order to raise a force capable of defending the world from an army of interdimensional laser dickbutts or something. It'd be a real Dragon Age/Witcher style fucked up morally grey situation. None of this clear cut good and evil kid decisions.

 

Not going to lie, this would have been awesome

 

Spoiler

Toph the Swamp Witch.

Totally works.

Degobah parallel anyone?

 

I nearly had a fit when that guy moved over and revealed this.

Spoiler

I'm really happy we get to see Toph. But when Korra went into the swamp, I thought Toph would be the same Toph in Aang's vision all those years ago, complete with a flying boar as a pet. So... irrationally disappointed.

Also, I thought it was a bit stupid that Korra was searching for answers in the Spirit World and then just flat out turned down that little spirit's offer without even asking what they could possibly do. Other than that, I liked it. And I really liked all the parallels to Zuko they had going on. Korra feels like she needs to reclaim her honor, and I can't wait for some serious character metamorphosis.

 

The photo was perfect. It's a real shame that we didn't get more past life interactions with this series.

 

Episode 3 was utter tripe. Only good part was Toph beating the shit out of Korra.

Definitely not looking forward to the 'spirit energy as a power source' ubercliche.

 

My first thought was more that they were making a city destroying spirit vine A-bomb.

Not too happy with the episode. All the complexity I'd hoped for in the new characters seems more unlikely now. It's a real shame, I'd wanted them to really shoot for something a bit more affecting in their last season.

 

Chapter 4 was... anticlimactic.

Spoiler

Korra getting the poison out and leaving Toph back at the swamp? Gee, thanks writers. You might as well not have included Toph at all for all she did. And didn't reveal.

I heard that Book 4 is suppose to wrap everything up, so I hope we'll see Toph again. Not that she was written very well, tbh. It didn't feel like Toph to me.

And I'm guessing the spirit version of the Avatar stuck in the Avatar state won't be haunting Korra anymore. That was the coolest part of the new episodes, and it's already gone.

I also thought the airbender kids would have a longer journey to find Korra, but now I'm glad they didn't. Jinora I haven't liked since she saved Raava (it was never explained, and it pissed me off because it took some of the spotlight from Korra in her hero moment. And not just any hero moment, but the-reason-for-the Avatar's-existence hero moment), Meelo has steadily become more annoying than fun, and Ikki... Well, I'm neutral about Ikki, but the writers are pretty much reusing an issue she dealt with in Book 2 (feeling like an outsider to her sibling and shit).

I'm just... bored. Seriously, they missed a major chance to really develop Korra's character. And, yeah, I know it's not over yet. But they were making so many parallels to Zuko that I thought it'd take longer and it would be more dramatic once Korra got the poison out. This is the Tenzin-thing in the Fog of Lost Souls (or whatever it's called) all over again.

When the airbenders showed up and told Korra the world needed her, I was tentatively optimistic because it meant that Korra would have to face with world with the poison still in her body, and the Avatar spirit calling her back to the swamp—both to get the poison out and to connect to the past Avatars somehow. It said in ATLA that the swamp connects you to people you once loved and lost, and that certainly sums up all the Avatars, doesn't it? But, no. My hopes were crushed in the next couple of seconds.

So... disappointed. But for legitimate reasons this time rather than my wish that Toph was wandering the swamp as a white-dress wearing 12 year old with a flying boar.

 

So Chapter 5 was better. Not great, but things were happening.

Spoiler

To start off, I'm annoyed that Korra barely got any screen time. And what we did see of her didn't make much sense. Sure, I understand wanting to talk to Kuvira. But immediately saying, "Maybe that is for the best," or whatever, saying that it might be best if Kuvira just takes over Zhoafu, doesn't make one lick of sense. She knows next to nothing about Kuvira, but she trusts Suyin. Why would she randomly hop on the Kuvira train just because she can relate, because they both made unpopular decisions? Maybe if Korra said she'd facilitate talk between the two, sure. But, "Yeah, you maybe should be able to have Zhoafu, you already have the rest of the Earth Kingdom. I'll talk to Suyin, try to make her see your way," is dumb. I know she didn't say that exactly, and she seemed pretty indecisive... But still. It bothered me.

To Varrick. I like that Varrick drifts, and then sees reason. It's consistent with his character. And I like how the spirit energy was completely overwhelming and unable to be tamed (so far). I didn't like the idea of weaponizing spirit energy, and I still don't. It's stupid. It's spirit energy. That's like muggles in Harry Potter weaponizing magic. Just no.

I hope that Zhu Li was bluffing so that she could stay close to Varrick. But I don't think she was. Her face when Varrick said, "Thanks a lot, Zhu Li," was pretty enraged. I know that her dynamic with Varrick is pretty unequal and she's unappreciated, and I should like the change, but it was the messed up relationship that I liked. I liked that she was a loyal 'cold-hearted war machine,' and I liked that Varrick depended on her. I thought that showed a weird trust on his part. So I'm not happy if Zhu Li actually joined Kuvira.

Now to Kuvira. I'm disappointed that she seems to be an actual evil dictator. Slave labor, re-education camps... I think the conflict would be more interesting if she really did make the Earth Kingdom a better place to live as an Earth Empire. The struggle Korra would go through would be more interesting, Kuvira would be more interesting, everything would be more interesting. And on that map of her's, the territory of United Republic is still unfilled, so I assume that she'll try to take that over as well. I suppose that's how the Fire Nation will fit into this. Iroh will get involved because he's the head general or whatever, and the Fire Lord will get involved because it's Zuko's and Aang's brain child and one of the forces of peace in the world. So that should be interesting, and we'll probably see more of Zuko, but I'm still disappointed that Kuvira is turning out to be so one-dimensional.

Basically, I just really miss Azula. I want a bad guy like her where motives become more intricate and development is actually seen. Amon and Zaheer were bad guys for good causes, but they didn't make them so awesome as characters. Sure, they were awesome benders. If we had more time to see Amon as Noatak, it would have been better (and if we actually saw tensions between non-benders and benders persist, but that's a different complaint). We saw Zaheer with Sparky Sparky Boom Girl, but there was nothing that endeared me to either of them. They felt flat because the Red Lotus' cause felt flat. It wasn't as fleshed out as it could have been. I wanted flashbacks, motives for choosing anarchy. But it wasn't there, so I just didn't care about Zaheer or the others by the end.

So I want bad guys that I'm kind of rooting for because they're so great, like I did with Azula. I hope that the writers manage to make me root for Kuvira, but that seems pretty moot that this point. I also want to see more of Korra and I want that spirit energy crap to not work out. I really hope they're not trying to make it like nuclear weapons, where the bombs cause stalemate to prevent mutual destruction. The Avatar is meant to simultaneously be the threat and peace in this universe, I don't want big bad weapons taking his/her place. Hopefully the spirit energy just blasts increasingly boring Kuvira to smithereens. Or even if it backfires. Kuvira blasts Republic City with spirit energy, and the Spirit Wilds just grows larger and protects the city. That would be pretty interesting, and it would show that when the going gets tough, the spirits will protect their human neighbors. Doubt that will happen, but whatever.

 

I watched the last two episodes through the gaps in my facepalm. Every chance they had to deviate from the horrendously predictable plot, they missed. And the fact that they're turning Kuvira into a Hitler analogue is incredibly cliche.

Boring dialogue, very little humor, plot going nowhere other than 'Korra must stop bad guy before bad guy does mildly bad things'.... I think I can safely say this season is dead in the water without the introduction of some greater conflict. Disappointing.

 

I did like Asami subplot and that Korra is trying to redefine what being the Avatar means to her, even if she is trying this with the worst person possible, the stupidly evil Kuvira with her new Dai Lee camps.