The Legend of Korra: Book Two

I just watched the final episodes and

Spoiler

I have really really mixed feelings, this rarely happens. I don't know how I should feel about the ending. I really liked the fights and turns it took, bit even then, it was predictable until Unalock transformed into evil spirit godzilla. The giant fight, though short, was really cool and I wished it would have gone on a but longer.

I liked the parallel between Korra's inner spirit and Aang's guru training, but it felt off. No matter how much I like the metaphysics and philosophy of the show, along with eastern philosophy, it just seemed a bit off putting. The consequence didn't seem great enough, Korra's loss of her past lives. I would have rather Korra herself possibly die or become a spirit, they didn't shy away from unalock's fate.

I one thing I always enjoyed about the series was how subtle the spirits and spirit world were. The Wan episodes were amazing, but the rest, the spirits are shoved everywhere, nothing is subtle.

It's a mess, quite frankly. I enjoyed the ride and the episodes, but still.

It's almost like it would be an alternate good ending to Evangelion...

I really have no idea what to think or how to feel.

The ending, it seemed heavily influenced by not only taoist and buddhist themes, but mainly hindu as well (bending your own energy and becoming a higher being yourself). The ideas and philosophies are nice, but that's not the problem. The problem is if they can translate into a story well. I would have to say, no. The two scenes are so different, Tenzin finding his inner self and Korra finding her inner self. The Tenzin scene was amazing and played really well with the theme. For Korra, it was a bit off putting, she does learn and tried to be herself, but there is so little to reconstruct from her awful character development. Tenzin had a reason to become strong in his moment of need, and we felt for him when I was fighting his own demons and searching for his true identity. Korra, she has none of that. The theme might have worked better if we are given more reason to feel for Korra and more room for her character to actually grow, learn, and search for herself. Even with time constraints, they could still have done that.

It's obvious most kids or even regular people may get the themes without knowing about eastern religion and philosophies, so I don't know if it's only off-putting to me because I am familiar with those ideas.

Also, Iroh. His first appearance was great, but it seemed a bit on the fanservice side. But his voice, it was a bit, I would say, different. Baldwin did fine in his first appearance, but his voice sounded a bit off when he was speaking to Tenzin and Co. It's just weird, as Baldwin was a good replacement for Mako (a horrible thing to say. I love Mako and all his stuff), but was it only me who felt his last lines sounded odd?

As for the love triangle bullcrap. I liked how it showed how Asami felt backstabbed along with Korra breaking off, knowing it will never work. But the memory loss, there was no need for that. Don't set us up with Korra breaking off with Mako, memory loss reconciliation with playboy Mako, only to have a more mature break off scene. You could have easily built off the first break up scene, Korra admits her faults at the end, apologizes, and goes her separate way, no attempted reconciliation or forced love triangle. I was really liking Mako, but the love storyline restricts his character to an easily hate-able doofus.

In the end, the only characters to have real growth and left a great impression were: Bolin, Varrick (his character was amazing and likely the best written character in Korra, both seasons), Tenzin and Co, Wan, Jenora, and the twins (surprisingly).