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[gunswordfist]

Just finished episode 1 of Season 4. So far there's a few red flags. If either the Great Uniter or the Earth Kingdom Prince are going to be the main villain, than I am very underwhelmed. I can't even bother to remember their real names. Korra going down the old "loner who gets themself beat up" route is not interesting either. At best, she'll typically snap back when something big happens. Korra moving backwards is just a bad idea. Nice female MMA influence though.

On a lesser note, the Air Nomads new costumes are pretty horrible. The only costume I've ever hated in the entire Avatar universe. They look like X-Men First Class rejects.

Anyway, I'll catch up before I start to pass any real judgment. Hopefully Korra and the entire Avatar universe ends with a good season. I did like that they did a time skip. Me coming in blind made that a good surprise.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I actually like Kuvira as a villain. She feels a lot less 1-Dimensional than many Avatar villains from the past, like Ozai and Unalaq, who really just felt evil for the sake of being evil. She's more of a political type villain along the lines of Amon, who at least have some reasonable motivations for being the antagonists, in that they aren't antagonists in their eyes.

As for Korra, I don't consider it moving her character back just because she's in a down state. The only time her character moved back was in Book 2, which basically just ignored her character development from the first season. The character arc that she's going through now is completely different from before. After the events of Book 3, she is having post-traumatic mental damage that's holding her back from being 100%, and furthermore it was established that she hasn't felt like she was needed as the Avatar once they took down the Red Lotus. So she's going through a new character arc to overcome all of that.

Honestly, I'm liking these first couple of episodes a lot more than the premieres in previous Korra seasons. It's taking its time to set things up in an interesting way. Kuvira may just be a dictator in essence, but the important thing is that she's rallying the Earth Kingdom to her side, as evidenced by how the common people of the village cheered for her when she took over. All they see is that she's giving them food and protection, not what's really happening behind the scenes. So, when Korra inevitably opposes her, she'll most likely be seen as the bad guy in their eyes, at least initially, which I find to be an interesting angle for this season.

In terms of being underwhelming, I'd say that as far as Korra goes, it's about as large in scale as any other season of the show (you could probably argue that Book 2's conflict was the largest in scale, though). It's not nearly as grandiose as anything in TLA, but it was never meant to be. This show wasn't originally planned as a big epic. They were only going to do one season at first, and then when Nick gave then 3 more, it became a series of smaller, but still interconnected stories that each lasted a single season. Personally I'm fine with that, because to me, bigger doesn't always mean better, and many of my favorite stories are smaller scale, anyways.

Also, looking back at episode 2, Korra's character arc sort of reminds me of Joe's from The Fall of Joe Yabuki arc in AnJ. Of course, while I don't consider Korra to be nearly as endearing of a character, it's still interesting to see that period where she's overcoming a state of depression, which I consider to be really heavy stuff for a kids show.

[gunswordfist]

Just finished episode 2. I did a double take when the episode title "Korra Alone" came up. That was a good shock.

Ok, so the excuse for Korra to not go to Republic City was, cut her hair, change her clothes, lose contact with her loved ones, live like a bum, etc. was because..she saw an evil version of herself...I get the need for something for her to go on this adventure but they could have just showed Rava in the other direction instead. lol But no big deal. I'm just hoping this quest leads to something good.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I wonder what exactly they are trying to harness out of that spirit vine? I suppose it'll be a weapon of some sort. As for Korra, it looks like she still has remaining metal stuck in her body, but her issues are still psychological more than physical. Seeing Toph kick Korra's ass in training was a ton of fun, though, and all of her mocking comments about Korra being the "worst Avatar ever" are clearly a nod from the writers as to all the shit people have given them for this series and how many haters Korra has. Meanwhile, Bolin still seems to support Kuvira, but it's obvious that he'll turn on her soon enough when she gets too out of line.

Overall, I really like where this season is going, personally. It feels like a more personal and character driven story than past seasons, which I'm more of a fan of than just grand scale plots that are just big for the sake of being big.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I like to think I am above mocking the pun in the episode title. I am clearly wrong.

[Daikun]

So, I finally watched The Coronation today (I'm playing catch-up), and I think I might have found a plot hole.

Korra has had that poison in her for THREE YEARS?!? Shouldn't she be dead by now?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I believe it was a trace amount of poison that was stuck in her body. Not enough to kill her, but enough to keep her with a physical handicap.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I really like the picture I chose for this article.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Katfight.

[Daikun]

Feel free to skip this week's episode. It's dreck.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, it's just a recap episode. And not a clever one like The Ember Island Players. It's literally just a recap episode. Pretty disappointing and lazy for a high-budget show like this one, really.

That said, this episode aside, I've still been enjoying this season, so far.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I didn't like this episode because it had Napoleon Dynamite and film references tickle me silly.

[Nel_Annette]

It was nice to see Zaheer again. I did like how he got that little "aw, crap" look on his face when Korra told him Kuvira was basically his fault.

[Il Juude]

I can't stand this series anymore. I'm just looking forward to it ending. This entire book is disappointing. Much more disappointing than Book 2.

Spoiler

After the initial shock wore off I am SO meh on Kuvira's final weapon. It's awesomeness is nulled by how absolutely hokey it looks.

[close]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Eh, I can't say that I agree. Flaws aside, I've enjoyed this season for the most part, and unlike Book 2, it doesn't feel completely directionless, and the character development actually makes sense. I don't like how Bolin has been handled (though the entire series has basically made him a butchered version of Sokka), but I'm pretty satisfied with mostly everyone else. For one thing, it doesn't completely disregard all of Korra's previous development like Book 2 did, and Kuvira at least has an understandable motivation, whereas Unalaq was so badly underdeveloped that he just came off as being evil for the sake of it. All of that talk about wanting to merge the spirit and human worlds for some unexplained greater good fell completely flat.

Also, I love the giant mecha. It's completely absurd, but that's what makes it stand out so much. Sometimes I like things being over the top, as it's what the anime style of animation excels at.