Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ichimaru Gin]

Kuvira has the most technologically advanced and powerful army, massive territory, something like a network of brainwashing camps, and most importantly, nuclear (spirit) power. Why would she not want to conquer the world?

No you're probably right. It's not like the world leaders have really shown themselves to be competent or proactive when it comes to these sorts of things either. So Kuvira is probably justified in her actions because of her huge power base. The Earth Empire is probably bigger than every other nation combined--with a population to match.

They had a chance to arrest Kuvira in Republic City when she refused to step down, but no one really did anything. They just let her keep control of the whole nation. So what kind of message does that send to her? It makes her enemies look pretty weak. Truth is they probably won't do anything to stop her until she starts expanding the Earth Empire--my guess is Republic City will be next since it used to be part of the Earth Kingdom.

[Robz888]

Don't get me wrong, I think she's Fire Lord Ozai 2.0. She's evil and needs to be destroyed. But I totally buy into her motivations. She started out well-meaning (if strong-willed), and her mega-successes encouraged her to seek darker and darker means of greater control.

[Ichimaru Gin]

Don't get me wrong, I think she's Fire Lord Ozai 2.0. She's evil and needs to be destroyed. But I totally buy into her motivations. She started out well-meaning (if strong-willed), and her mega-successes encouraged her to seek darker and darker means of greater control.

Yeah. I just meant that her actions are more justified from her own POV than I had previously thought--not that they're generally justifiable.

It's a shame that she's pretty much confirmed as evil now--what with the "reeducation camps" and everything. Cause I was pretty much rooting for Kuvira until this last episode.

[eHalcyon]

The fight was not as epic as I'd have liked.  I hope there is a better one later.

Varrick was amazing in this episode though.

[AHoppy]

The fight was not as epic as I'd have liked.  I hope there is a better one later.

Varrick was amazing in this episode though.

But Varrick is amazing in every episode...

[eHalcyon]

That finale was more spectacular than I expected it to be, and I had pretty high expectations.  Really great stuff.

Random thought -- I wonder if lavabending is a result of combined earthbending and firebending lineage.  We've only seen two examples, and Bolin does have firebending in his ancestry.

[AHoppy]

I was thinking that too.  I was really pleased with what they were able to do, especially given their circumstances.  Everything did feel rushed near the end, but considering how few episodes they had, the budget cuts, it all makes sense.  I was kinda disappointed there wasn't more of a nod to Avatar, like even having Toph or Katara return would have been good. 

[eHalcyon]

I was thinking that too.  I was really pleased with what they were able to do, especially given their circumstances.  Everything did feel rushed near the end, but considering how few episodes they had, the budget cuts, it all makes sense.  I was kinda disappointed there wasn't more of a nod to Avatar, like even having Toph or Katara return would have been good.

Nah, that was addressed already. As Toph said, they're too old for this now. 

[Elestan]

I wonder if lavabending is a result of combined earthbending and firebending lineage.  We've only seen two examples, and Bolin does have firebending in his ancestry.

If was writing the show, I'd have had the bender's heritage determine the bending element, but the martial arts forms needed would correspond to phases of matter.  So lavabending would require an earthbender to use water (liquid) moves, icebending would require a waterbender to use using earth (solid) moves, and electricitybending would require a firebender to use air (gaseous) moves.

On another topic, Platinum must also be a heckuva lot more common on that world.

[AJD]

On another topic, Platinum must also be a heckuva lot more common on that world.

Yeah, it's like you can just buy it for $9 a slab.

[AJD]

I was thinking that too.  I was really pleased with what they were able to do, especially given their circumstances.  Everything did feel rushed near the end, but considering how few episodes they had, the budget cuts, it all makes sense.  I was kinda disappointed there wasn't more of a nod to Avatar, like even having Toph or Katara return would have been good.

Nah, that was addressed already. As Toph said, they're too old for this now.

Yeah, but on the other hand, remember Iroh and Bumi from the original series?

[jonts26]

So that ending. Korrasami is basically canon now, right?

[AHoppy]

I was thinking that too.  I was really pleased with what they were able to do, especially given their circumstances.  Everything did feel rushed near the end, but considering how few episodes they had, the budget cuts, it all makes sense.  I was kinda disappointed there wasn't more of a nod to Avatar, like even having Toph or Katara return would have been good.

Nah, that was addressed already. As Toph said, they're too old for this now.

Yeah, but on the other hand, remember Iroh and Bumi from the original series?

Not to fight, but at the end.  They didn't even make appearances in the wedding (Ok, I might understand Toph not showing up since she's in the spirit wilds and she's Toph, but isn't Kotara still around?)

[jonts26]

I was thinking that too.  I was really pleased with what they were able to do, especially given their circumstances.  Everything did feel rushed near the end, but considering how few episodes they had, the budget cuts, it all makes sense.  I was kinda disappointed there wasn't more of a nod to Avatar, like even having Toph or Katara return would have been good.

Nah, that was addressed already. As Toph said, they're too old for this now.

Yeah, but on the other hand, remember Iroh and Bumi from the original series?

Not to fight, but at the end.  They didn't even make appearances in the wedding (Ok, I might understand Toph not showing up since she's in the spirit wilds and she's Toph, but isn't Kotara still around?)

Katara didn't make it up to republic city for her granddaughter's master airbender ceremony. I doubt she's gonna make it for the wedding of two people she probably barely knows.

[AHoppy]

good point... oh well

[jonts26]

From a storytelling perspective, it's probably for the best the old gaang stayed out of things. While AtLA did establish that people their age could be incredible badasses, they already had their story. Basically, Toph's last speech about this being the kid's fight I think is the creators saying just that to the audience. Sure it's nice to see them, and you can pay homage to them like they did (except poor sokka), but that's as far as they can really take it.

Maybe if there were more episodes there would be time to say goodbye to the old guys, but I think they already had to rush through the epilogue as it was.

[Ichimaru Gin]

Wow. Just got a chance to finish it. That was really good.

Jon Heder's cameos will still be one of my favorite parts of the whole show though.

[eHalcyon]

I was thinking that too.  I was really pleased with what they were able to do, especially given their circumstances.  Everything did feel rushed near the end, but considering how few episodes they had, the budget cuts, it all makes sense.  I was kinda disappointed there wasn't more of a nod to Avatar, like even having Toph or Katara return would have been good.

Nah, that was addressed already. As Toph said, they're too old for this now.

Yeah, but on the other hand, remember Iroh and Bumi from the original series?

I got the sense that Iroh was just a little north of middle aged (like Tenzin or Lin), and that King Bumi was a major exception.  I guess Pakku was pretty old too.  The old folks of ATLA's Order of the White Lotus only engaged in a relatively smaller battle in the grand scheme of things anyway and left the boss battles to the gAang.  And keep in mind, this was to end a century-old war of global scale when it looked like the war was about to be lost to an obviously evil and unhinged dictator. 

For better or worse, the Korra plot was much lower stakes.  While arguably global as well (given the breadth of the Earth kingdom), conflict was much more contained since Kuvira's mandate was Order.  The conflict has been going on for less than 3 years... arguably more in the span of months, because Kuvira hadn't actually gone against the other leaders until the third episode of book 4.  Even though she had done some terrible, ruthless things, she had begun with good intentions and pure motives.  Even when she was doing evil kinds of things, she wasn't really evil herself.  And she was sane.  Katara didn't need to get involved.  Toph didn't fight in the final battle, but she still had some meaningful contributions earlier in the book.

Actually, my biggest disappointment is that we saw so little of Zuko's daughter.  It's not even clear if she has any sort of battle prowess... I mean, it's probable given her father and her son, but it would have been nice to see her electrocute some mechs or something.

One of my favourite scenes in the finale was when Meelo was clinging to the window of the giant mech.

[Robz888]

I liked it, although I think it didn't surpass the very high bar set by Korra season 3. I liked Kuvira's colossus a great deal as a villain. Kuvira herself was a touch underdeveloped, unfortunately. Also the ending felt like a fine ending for this season, but not a suitable enough closer for the entire series. Which is fine by me as long as they eventually make more...

[eHalcyon]

I liked it, although I think it didn't surpass the very high bar set by Korra season 3. I liked Kuvira's colossus a great deal as a villain. Kuvira herself was a touch underdeveloped, unfortunately. Also the ending felt like a fine ending for this season, but not a suitable enough closer for the entire series. Which is fine by me as long as they eventually make more...

They say that this is it, but they kind of said that at the end of ATLA too...

[Elestan]

Also the ending felt like a fine ending for this season, but not a suitable enough closer for the entire series. Which is fine by me as long as they eventually make more...

I think that they prematurely sent in their big villain (the anti-avatar) in season 2.  After that, a metalbender with a chip on her shoulder just wasn't that scary, though the giant mech was pretty cool.

Overall, the series felt more like four mostly standalone stories (one per season), rather than one large integrated story; the villain for each season was introduced at the start of the season, and defeated at the end.  Which may be how they had to do it, if they didn't know whether they'd be renewed each season.  But I think I would have enjoyed it more if they had integrated the plot across seasons.

[jonts26]

I actually think this was a very satisfying series finale. No, the stakes weren't as high as Atla or previous season finales, but a) the action was still really good, as good as anything from last season and b) more importantly the episode showed the culmination of Korras personal development which has always been the main drive of the show. And I think kuvira, even though she never did get the development I would have liked, serves as a strong villain to show this. Korra basically summed it up in the final conversation with kuvira. Kuvira is either a reminder of where korra started or a warning of where she could have ended up. Early korra was headstrong aggressive and always looking to use her power first to solve conflict. So the ultimate resolution being almost diplomatic seems very fitting.

I'd actually argue that this resolved itself better than aang and ozai. This resolution felt natural and earned while the aang finale had a bit of a lion turtle ex machina feel.