The Legend Of Korra: Book 4 Review

Quite possibly, the last season of the Avatar Franchise period...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation here back again with a new review! Today's review: The fourth and final book of The Legend of Korra titled 'Balance'. This blog started with a Legend of Korra review, so it's only right that I talk about it's final season. Let's hop on in!

Synopsis: The Legend of Korra Book 4 takes place a whopping Three Years after the events of Book 3 (Spoilers to those who haven't seen Book 3...then again if you haven't seen Book 3 of Korra, why the hell are you here???) Korra is still recovering from her battle with Zaheer and company, Republic City has learned to coexist with the spirits and the spirit vines that inhabited it, The air nation is going strong and is helping people, and the Earth Nation is still recovering from the death of the Earth Queen with a new King days away from being crowned. As this is going on, Kuvira, who was sloppily introduced in the final episodes of the third season, has been using underhanded methods in helping The Earth Nation people, in her final days of work decides to break the Earth Nation away from the rest of the world and create a new 'Earth Empire' and those who oppose her are considered her enemy. It is now a still healing Korra's job to stop Kuvira's dictatorship and bring balance (See what I did there?) to the Earth Nation and the rest of the world.

The Good: As usual with this series, the fight scenes and bending are top notch and are always fun to watch, which perfectly reflect the amazing animation that the show has had throughout its entire run. Although one of the parts of the season that made it so enjoyable were its first few episodes that brought attention to this little lady here:

Short Hair, don't care b*tch!!

The end of LOK Book 3 saw Korra beaten and exhausted. When we get our first look at her in Book 4, she's at her lowest. She feels like she's lost a part of herself and she's on a journey to find that part again so she can go back to helping the world like she's meant to. The episode that covers her voyage of self discovery titled 'Korra Alone' was one of the best and strongest of not only the season, but the entire series itself.   

   

As it's the final season of Korra, the show's writers do their best to wrap up loose ends such as finally providing closure with Asami and her father while also managing to provide plenty of fanservice for viewers of both this show and its predecessor: Avatar The Last Airbender. Plenty of fan favorite characters make a return (Both long and short) in this series such as Varrick, Katara, and Zuko. Of course, no return was bigger than the return of:

The Greatest Earthbender ever! Albeit really really old...

That's right, Toph, who had been seen in the series through flashbacks and has been mentioned plenty of times, makes an actual appearance in the series in the second episode of Book 4. She serves as sort of a Yoda like figure for Korra in her recovery process in the book and we also got to see her interact with her daughters and patch things up with them.

Now let's talk about the season's villain, Kuvira. I felt the character did a good job of carrying the overall trend of morally gray villains and I think the actress voicing the character did a terrific job of having Kuvira come off as the powerful dictator she was displayed as...but, that doesn't necessarily mean that there was all good to that character as you're about to read.

The Bad:

Was saving that Kuvira picture for this

The character of Kuvira isn't bad. Like I said, she continues the trend of villains who have good intentions but are going about things the wrong way, something the show mentions itself. It's just I feel that continuing that trend with the villain was a bit of a double edged sword as because of it, Kuvira to me, felt a little bland. Don't get me wrong, the show did an amazing job at making the character feel like a big threat, it's just that she felt the same as other villains in the series except she didn't have the wisdom and ruthlessness of Zaheer nor did she have the charisma of Amon.

Then again, it's hard to out charisma any character voiced by Steve Blum

Another negative for Korra Book 4 is that there were some missed opportunities or some things just weren't mentioned. The picture perfect example is the Fire Nation. Throughout the entire Series of Korra, we never get to see what has changed in the fire nation over the years like we did with the other three nations, which is majorly disappointing as I was interested in seeing the new fire lord do more in the series. Speaking of fire lords, let's talk about Zuko...or the lack of him, Katara, and Toph meeting up. That was a serious opportunity that the writers missed out on. I know for a fact that it would have been great for older fans to see the elderly members of the original Team Avatar to interact with each other and the fact that it didn't is a little deflating.

And for a final odd nitpick, Todd Haberkorn voices a character in this season. That's not knocking the guy, he's a great voice actor, I just need him to stop being in everything...

Conclusion: The Legend of Korra as a series overall has been a roller coaster ride to watch, the show's had shining moments of greatness and moments that just made you look at whatever screen you're watching it on and shake your head in disbelief of the stupidity transpiring. But I like to think that this season definitely continued the momentum that the last built up on and gave the series a great send off. With great animation, voice acting, soundtrack, and a finale that truly brings it all home, there aren't a lot of animated series on T.V. right now that could match The Legend of Korra and bring the sort of discussion that it brought. If you couldn't tell, Book 4: Balance gets a much deserved stamp of approval.

Till next folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying: I. LOVE. LESBIANS!!!

Those are my thoughts on the final scene, plus Chappelle Show rules. Take care folks...