Thoughts on Legend of Korra and Finale (Spoilers Ahead)

Legend of Korra copyright Nickolodeon.

Like many fans, the finale to Legend of Korra did leave me tearbending. I think it was a very fitting ending to the entire series leaving a variety of messages to the audience. The article by Vanity Fair gave a very convincing argument on reasons why Legend of Korra is a very good series. Instead of repeating the details, I rather give some of my own opinion. Though Korra comes from the same universe of Avatar The Last Airbender, I don't think viewers should compare the two series head-on because they should be reviewed as stand alone pieces. Legend of Korra may be a sequel, but it explores more the Avatar universe. I have always praised Avatar for creating a world based on Eastern influences showcasing different nationalities and ethnicity as main characters. As I am part of a minority group in the United States, it makes me happy that my culture was represented on television not as some foreign exotic thing, but something to be celebrated. Once again, I don't think Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko were trying to push an agenda like Vanity Fair was saying, but giving a platform to spread awareness through animation. 

Briefly speaking, each season of Korra had its ups and downs. Season one is my favorite and seeing that it was originally conceived of as one season as opposed to four seasons, it would have been better if season one consisted of a few more episodes. It had very well developed characters for such a short series and good drama. Season two was my least favorite because I felt that it tried too hard to expand on the spiritual side of the series, but in the end it did positively expand on the Avatar universe in general. For example, the origins of the first Avatar played very well in the future seasons. Season three showed more promise with very interesting antagonist though the reasons given for the antagonism wasn't very well written in my opinion. There were several other things that didn't sit well with me like how Bolin lava bends out of nowhere. There were some good references however. The Earth Queen of the Earth Kingdom is very much based off of CiXi the Empress Dowager of the Qing dynasty in Imperial China and the movement brought forth by the Red Lotus reminded me of the Taiping Rebellion. Season four rounded off the series very nicely because it proves that there is place for an animation project aimed at teens and older teens exploring mature and real life issues. Other than Korra's growth that many teens can relate to, there's references to politics and contemporary issues relevant to this decade.

Endings are not always happy as I felt that Korra's was bittersweet. In fact I think every season finale was bittersweet. Season one had a murder-suicide, season two resulted in Korra losing connection with her past lives entirely, and season three had Korra crippled mentally and physically. Even the ending credits music was always played with such a sad erhu. Loss and sacrifice was definitely a theme they were going for. Seeing Hiroshi's death was a confirmation of two things other than many of us grabbing tissues. One is that there is an importance in forgiving and the other being the love shared within a family. I feel that Asami forgiving her father after so much has happened was a great leap forward and showed how much she matured. She is one of my favorite characters because she serves as a role model showing that women can also be tech saavy and fight, but not fit under the stereotype that these women are unapproachable and violent.

The love between Varrick and Zhu Li showed an acceptance of each others faults and good traits. I say this because of Zhu Li's reply to accepting Varrick's entirety including his calluses. Though intended as humor, I think it says a lot about how love should be. A lot of fans, me included, were waiting see these two together. Varrick though is a shrewd businessman with a very shady set of morals sometimes does have his good points like his knack for inventions and his refusal to create a super weapon. Zhu Li is a good demonstration of someone who has faith in people they love and standing their ground for the side of good, for example using whatever means to stop the assembly of the spirit weapon. Team Avatar had a fair share of heroic moments proving that taking down an antagonist is not a one person job. Everyone pitched in to save Republic City using their own methods resulting in a beautiful display of team work and really nice action scenes. I was glad that they didn't have one character steal the show so to speak. I didn't expect Mako to use the redirecting lightning technique and was pleased to see it revival in the end.

Korra and Asami walking hand in hand in the end also says quite a few things. First as a woman, you don't always need to have the story end with a man. Second is that these are two strong and independent women walking towards a new era putting behind old ideas and beliefs. They did in fact have a very good friendship that many of us can relate to. Like Vanity Fair puts it, it did push the envelope with a children's show depicting a more romantic relationship between two women. Perhaps whether or not you were a fan of the Korra and Asami pairing is not the main thing here, but being aware that two people of the same sex can harbor romantic love for each other.

I felt that it was intended that in the end Korra would not reconnect her past lives. While that may result in a somewhat happier ending, Korra is now the Avatar beginning a new cycle of her own using Raava as her grounded connection as opposed to previous Avatars. It symbolically represents the ushering of a new era where she is building everything from scratch. Korra is no longer afraid because losing the assistance from her past lives forced her to look forward in the present to make her decisions. She was always afraid of her previous enemies because she could not face them alone forgetting that she could rely on the help of others. Speaking of help, Tenzin played a very crucial role in shaping Korra being a mentor and a sort of conscience on her decisions as the Avatar. I feel that he served as a main support for Korra through almost all her troubles providing her with advice and comfort. Had it not been Tenzin, I don't know how Korra would have gone through a lot of problems.

This had been a great ride and I'm glad I jumped the bandwagon with everyone. I seriously hope that in the future that people can produce children's cartoons and animation projects aimed at teens that use more edge in their writing. There just isn't enough animation made for teens and older teen demographics. They're either really dumbed down because of a very young age demographic or teens have to jump immediately to adult shows. It's up to parents to decide whether their teenage kid should be watching adult material, but let there be a show for this age transition.