TSB-Studios

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS TO SEASON 3 FINALE!

Well. Well. Weeeelll. After watching the finale, I have to say I am seriously impressed by this season. The pacing, storyline, animation and character development were top-notch. I have not felt this excited and satisfied with the Avatar/Korra franchise since the finale of the original Avatar book 3.

Season 1 of Korra had an excellent plot all the way until the finale, when wait what in the world Amon is related to Tarrlok and is a bloodbender wtf so he's not some mislead spiritual dude and how did Korra unlock airbending and master the Avatar State whaaaaat. And then season 2. Don't even get me started on how messed up that whole season was. All that Jinora-ex-machina and 'hey Korra lost Raava but she's so spiritual she can turn into a blue giant wow how nifty!' crap seriously made me question the writers.

Then season 3 starts. All throughout the season I was hyped. The storyline and the pacing was just so good. But before the finale I held back my excitement - what if season 3 ends up like season 1 with a stupidly disappointing finale?

W-ell I was wrong.

Everything was so believable. All three different fight sequences - Korra & Tonraq vs Zaheer, Lin & Su vs P'li and the bending brothers vs tentacle lady & lava guy all had so much life and creativity to their fight sequences. And when Korra landed herself into trouble, it wasn't Aang or Jinora who bailed her out. It was herself. She fought her way out of trouble by being the Avatar, not because of some last minute spiritual mumbo-jumbo.

P'li's death was meh for me. Although her bending was cool, her character development wasn't enough for me to care whether she died or not. I do wish though that Zaheer showed a little more emotion when he saw her die. That being said, I have absolutely hated Zaheer since episode 11. Not because of the writers, mind you. He's an excellent villain. I just hate him for who he is. Like how I hate Dolores Umbridge (who ranks among the top 10 of my 'best villains' list) - the character's sheer evilness is just so amazing that I can't help but be appalled.

I mean, loved Amon (SEXY VOICE FTW). I thought Unalaq was a lame and wimpy villain. But Zaheer is just pure hate. This guy is a complete hypocrite. He preaches air bending philosophy, but goes around threatening to wipe out entire civilisations just to get what he wants? How is that in any way following the ways of Guru Lahima (or whatever it's spelt)? The entire air nomad culture is based on peace and respect for life. If you want to be a psychopath, then just kill people and be done with it. Don't go around pretending you're just following the words of a wise airbender. I was really hoping he'd be killed, because getting shut in prison isn't good enough. He can always break out. Hopefully though he will ROT IN PRISON! /Azula

Did anyone else get really creeped out when Mako and Bolin went to retrieve the airbenders during the exchange, and the 'air benders' turned out to be water that got melted by Ming Hua? At first I though holy shit they're dying and their bodies are decomposing noooo oh wait they're fake. Of course. Of course the wise and noble airbender that is Zaheer would lie. Then the fight sequence starts and the episode really starts to get good. Bolin. Learns. Lavabending.

Mako and Bolin vs Ghazan and Ming Hua. It was so epic to see Bolin use lavabending. From being completely trounced by Ghazan in 'The Stakeout' to holding his own ground now that he's also mastered lava, it's amazing to see the two of them fight; their sequence looked more like two waterbenders fighting due to the liquid nature of lava. I mean, just look at the lava getting melted and cooled and tossed around in the air - using the opponent's resources against them - so much dynamic.

And Mako tricking tentacle lady into the water just to zap her - you go boy! I've loathed him since mid-season 1 when he started playing around with Asami and Korra. He's matured so much this season I can't help but love him again. (I still like Amon more though...). The fight sequence between Kya and Ming Hua was disappointing in the previous episode; I really expected Kya to put up a bigger fight since y'know, she's the daughter of Katara and Aang. Good to see Mako avenge her loss.

Not sure if those Ghazan and Ming Hua died in the scuffle. Either case, there's now a whole bunch of Red Lotus members revealed, so it's likely that the next season will have them as villains. I quite liked Ghazan, though not enough to care whether he died or not.

Ah, the ending. So many feels. Jinora finally gets her tattos. When her hood came off she looked so much like Aang I squeed. That was the most heartwarming moment of the entire season. While Korra doesn't get a very happy ending herself after the effects of (probable) mercury poisoning, I think it's a very realistic end to the season. People don't just walk away from huge fights unscathed. I look forward to seeing her healing process in book 4. And even if she never learns to walk again, what's to stop her from being the Charles Xavier of Avatarverse and still being badass?

Bring on Book 4!