The Legend of Korra S02E13 & E14 – Review

By: Joshua Hamilton & Michael Dante DiMartino (story)

The Story: Korra must learn to use her blues to defeat darkness for good.

The Review: It occurred to me that the separation of the physical and spirit worlds really seemed to be a very sensible decision at the time.  Humankind had only just started to venture from the protection of the lion-turtles, and only some had any power to defend themselves against the more numerous, long-lived, and powerful spirits.  Had the status quo remained, spirits would most likely have dominated humanity for ages, if not forever.

I bring this up in light of—spoiler alert—Korra’s decision to leave the portals between worlds open at the end of the episode, allowing spirits to live alongside humanity once more.  She doesn’t give a very clear reason for this; she only suspects, without explaining why, that humans and spirits weren’t meant to live apart and that Avatar Wan made a mistake in concluding otherwise.  This, even though all evidence at the time went to the contrary.  The better rationale for keeping the portals open is that humanity has finally moved away from the endless wars of the past, and with their rapid technological progress, preserving their spirituality has become more important than ever.

The Legend of Korra S02E11 & E12 – Review

By: Joshua Hamilton & Tim Hedrick (story)

The Story: Once again, Nuktuk, hero of the South, saves the day!

The Review: [Incidentally, I understand the season finale is up for viewing on the Nick website, but I’m planning to cover them once they have their TV showing.] Ever since the double-headed “Beginnings,” this show has experienced a pretty dramatic turnaround.  Up until those episodes, both the characters and plot seemed painfully thin, despite repeated efforts to generate some kind of material worth investing in.  Had the show continued in that manner, I probably would have had to reconsider any commitment to review the series past the season.  Fortunately, the writers are absolving themselves quite admirably.

Make no mistake, though, that this is a rehabilitation going on in the show.  You can see that just by the way the writers still struggle with squaring the Water Tribe’s rather dull civil war with the far more interesting going-on’s of the Harmonic Convergence.  Even now, Unalaq fails to articulate his initial need to dominate the Southern Tribe, especially since he later reveals his overarching goal in allying with Vaatu:

The Legend of Korra S02E10 – Review

By: Tim Hedrick (story)

The Story: The fact the world is facing Armageddon doesn’t excuse missing tea time.

The Review: The last three episodes have marked a noticeable turnaround for the season, driving the show towards heights of fantasy that we haven’t seen since the end of the first Avatar series.  Although the political storylines have been sincere attempts to give this cartoon some sophistication, they’ve more often than not lost steam shortly after they’ve begun.  Case in point: the Water Tribe’s civil war bore little interest when it started and by now is best ignored.

In hindsight, the war seems to have been an unintended consequence of Unalaq’s plan to…I don’t know, take over the world, or something?  Had things gone his way, Korra would have acquiesced to his initial subterfuges and he might have gotten away with a semi-legitimate claim to total leadership.  But once that plan fell through, it was not only Unalaq left with an awkward military conflict on his hands, but the show as well, and neither have seemed very interested in developing that particular plotline.

The Legend of Korra S02E09 – Review

By: Joshua Hamilton (story)

The Story: Once again, playing around proves more spiritually fulfilling than meditation.

The Review: After the high point that was the last two episodes, with their high fantasy setting and world-shaking stakes, it feels like a bit of a drag returning to the somewhat mundane affairs of the present story.  On the plus side, “The Beginning” has given two boons for the show’s use: a far bigger and more important mission in the impending Harmonic Convergence, and some new perspective for Korra after her recent trials.

It may feel a little weird at first to see Korra’s newfound patience, but it sure beats the dreariness of her prior petulance.  Besides, it would have defeated her whole reconciliation with Tenzin if ten minutes later, she reverted to her usual hissy self after he admits he’s never been to the Spirit World before.  In exercising remarkable self-restraint, Korra’s usually hidden compassion comes to the forefront, allowing her mentor to grapple with his own failings.