Legend of Korra Book 4: Balance

[Fig]

This week's episode was pretty good in my opinion as we got to see the plot from Bolin and Varrick's side of the story. It was interesting to see what were they were going to do should they arrive at a checkpoint of the Earth Empire knowing they are fugitives and enemies of Kuvira. Everything was pretty smooth and well written. I think the thing that got me nervous was Kuvira's attack on the Spirit Tree, where Toph currently resides in. Obviously there will be friction between the two, and I'm just saying, but I'm willing to put my money on Kuvira simply because Toph is old. Toph even stated to Korra that she isn't in her prime anymore so that adds more bearing that Kuvira can beat Toph as he was as prodigy in her youth with Su.

This episode was great, but I had just two gripes with it. Just two. One: I thought Wu would have changed a bit after that talk from Mako, but he doesn't seem like he's changed much at all. Kinda disappointing, but I guess I'll give him more time. Two: If... Bataar Jr. thought Bolin and Varrick were dead... Why were there wanted posters of them...?.

I think this was just a safety precaution on Kuvira's part. She and Bataar could assume they died in the explosion, but judging from the fact that Bataar noticed Bolin and Varrick left via the vents in the train beforehand, I think he would assume they would have survived. Either way, Kuvira was smart and made sure she was prepared should Bolin and Varrick survuved the explosion.

don't be a ship hater

Seriously, though, I am a huge shipper. I love me some romance. It's fine if you don't care for romance, but don't rain on others' parades.

As Term said, shipping isn't a problem, however there are ships that just downright have the extremist supporters and thus is why people say "shipping" is toxic and I can agree on that aspect. I personally think Korrasami is one of these ships. Don't get me, I have nothing against it, however the fact that most of the supporters of this ship go to lengths of practically telling the rest of the fandom that if they don't believe in Korrasami, then they have no right to be an Avatar, enjoy Korra, etc. This is a main reason why I'm disgusted by Korrasami. I don't hate the concept of that ship, however I have a problem with its toxic supporters. Obviously not everyone who supports it is toxic, but when 90% of the supporters are extremists, things will give me a bad taste. Seriously, I had death threats given to me because I simply said "I don't support Korrasami" or that "I didnt' see any hint of Korrasami". Sure there's nice supporters of it, but usually whenever I see Korrasami, I personally get disgusted in which I then get branded as a Makorra shipper, to which I am not.

I am with Mask-Salesman here in the sense that romance in Avatar/Korra just makes room for error in terms of the story. Heck I really hated it when the creators tried to get Aang and Katarra together. It makes them both awkward and their emotions become flustered and don't allow them to think straight when conflicting with a difficult situation. And that's exactly what happened in both Book 1 and 2. I personally only think romance between/of main characters can only work when the series is finished and no moment sooner. Only then will accept a relationship between characters for a series like Avatar/Korra.

 

[A Link In Time]

This episode was somewhat simple, but I was hooked from the car chase. I'd been waiting for another one since the first book.

The part with Bolin and Varrick was solid as well. Varrick seems to be slowly developing as a character though his flaws are still apparent, such as when he wanted to the band of fugitives.

The end scene with airships and mechs working away at the Spirit Tree reminded me of James Cameron's Avatar. A forest battle with Toph involved would be pretty sweet.

 

[Stitch]

The end scene with airships and mechs working away at the Spirit Tree reminded me of James Cameron's Avatar. A forest battle with Toph involved would be pretty sweet.

Gdi, you beat me to it

 

[Mask-Salesman]

If Toph doesn't wipe the floor with Kuvira I will be really disappointed in the writers, and if they want to make up for that epic failure that Korra managed to pull off last episode I won't be satisfied with anything less than Korra crushing Kuvira's entire army by just blowing at it. But from what I've seen so far I wouldn't be surprised if Toph gets beaten badly and Korra has to get into the avatar state with the help of 99% of the good guys just to barely beat Kuvira. #yolo #rekt

Lol, that's kinda how I feel. I really want Korra to regain her honor by blowing that entire army away.

 

[Libk]

Oh cool. So me and my roommate aren't the only ones picking up on Korrasami hints.

 

[Azure Sage]

This week's episode was mostly flashbacks, but somehow I was okay with that. I've pretty much had enough of those kinds of episodes with anime, but at least for Legend of Korra, this one had us learn a couple things about the characters. It definitely shed some light on Mako's character, plus some good lessons for the younger audience on to not do what Mako did, lol. The Korra one was good to show that Korra's really grown as a person. She's really gone through some great character development. And they touched on important points; even though a new enemy may always appear, you can still learn from them and grow stronger. And the Bolin and Varrick one was just plain awesome. I love those two, omg. Best characters ever, I'm not even kidding. Bolin will always be my favorite. His and Varrick's story was so funny I loved it. Even though this episode was kind of just plain old filler, it was still entertaining. So, at least there's that.

 

[Mask-Salesman]

This weeks episode was... meh.. I never dislike these kind op episodes normally. It does give you some insights on the characters, but come on, at least give us some new footage from the past? Maybe only a few? I kinda get the feeling like this is a 'goodbye' episode by the creators, summing up the 3 earlier seasons of Korra before we head to the season finale.

I loved the Varrick story however. I really cracked up when Zaheer was phoning Vaatu and Amon. ''Sup Vaatu, are you in your room?" LOL. That was the best thing about the episode. The rest just felt like a filler. Kinda like Tales of Ba Sing Se in TLA, except that episode was extremely awesome and gave all the characters so much depth. In fact, the story with Iroh might be my favorite in the entire series. It was just so moving. Why couldn't they do the same with the Korra characters? This was just a huge flashback with comments.

 

[Jirohnagi]

I wanna say it was either a clipshow episode or lose a fair few members of staff almost half if what i've read is right. Meh no bigger though it's not like they show up all the tiem.

 

[Sheik]

Yeah, Bryan Konietzko made a post about the episode here. To summarize it, pretty much the only reason this episode even exists is because Nickelodean cut the team's budget for Book 4, so...

I still found the episode entertaining, save for the first part where Mako just talks about his relationship experiences with Korra and Asami, which was dreadfully boring in my opinion. The last part with Varrick's dramatic retelling of the battles against all the villains was great. All in all, it was no Ember Island Players in terms of good recap episodes, but I think it was still okay with what they had to work with.

 

[A Link In Time]

Yesterday's clips episode wasn't half bad, especially with the difficult budget situation the creators found themselves in.

The telephone conversation between the former villains was especially witty.

Now that that distraction is out of the way, I can't wait for a battle in the forest next week. Toph vs. Kuvira please.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

Honestly I haven't been keeping up with the series, I wanted to but I kept forgetting to set my DVR to record episodes while I was at work... and they hardly ever show reruns.

 

[Mask-Salesman]

Honestly I haven't been keeping up with the series, I wanted to but I kept forgetting to set my DVR to record episodes while I was at work... and they hardly ever show reruns.

I download all the episodes. Plus, I though most episodes were available to see on Youtube after a while. You could check that out.

 

[Moonstone]

I am with Mask-Salesman here in the sense that romance in Avatar/Korra just makes room for error in terms of the story. Heck I really hated it when the creators tried to get Aang and Katarra together. It makes them both awkward and their emotions become flustered and don't allow them to think straight when conflicting with a difficult situation. And that's exactly what happened in both Book 1 and 2. I personally only think romance between/of main characters can only work when the series is finished and no moment sooner. Only then will accept a relationship between characters for a series like Avatar/Korra.

That flustering awkwardness is why I think the romance in this series is so appropriate. Most of the heroes in this show are pre-teens/teenagers/young adults. People that age are usually susceptible to their emotions, falling easily into and out of love, and making some poor and hasty choices. Heck, there are even adults that are awkward romantically and act on emotion. I think the show does a great job portraying that part of humanity.

Also, if Korra and the gang were to easily overcome their challenges because they were acting completely out of logic the entire time, the show wouldn't be as engaging to me. Korra not only has to overcome the odds against her externally, but she must do so while dealing with the emotional roller-coaster that comes from simply being a teenage girl.

 

[Sydney]

The clips episode was fine, and I didn't mind it. Going into it I was a little disappointed because I was expecting a showdown between Kuvira and Toph, but seeing what Bryan had to say about their ultimatum made things much better. Knowing that this had to be done is perfectly fine. I'd rather have a clips episode than no more episodes at all, and I can't see why anyone would argue otherwise. The way they threw in humor here and there really made things enjoyable, and this was a great episode to see how characters have changed over the course of the series.

 

[A Link In Time]

Looks like the show is coming back to TV just in time for the last five episodes.