On September 14th, I reviewed the first two episodes of The Legend of Korra Season 2: Spirits. Having been a fan of the franchise since its early days, I wanted to give each episodes its own fair critique, pointing out the good and the bad.

And now, here we are. The final episodes were released online two weeks ago, and season 3: Change is in development. I have reviewed every episode of the season, but it was always my intention at the shows end to give you all my overall thoughts of the season.
And so, here we are: my review of Spirits!

I do have a few things I need to point out first:

1. I won’t be reviewing this exactly like my episode reviews. I will again separate individual aspects of the show, but I won’t be doing a “Things I Liked” or “Things I Didn’t Like” categories.

2. If I praise or criticise something, I don’t want you to refer to an episode review and say I’m being contradictory. I am reviewing the show as a whole now, and with this review I have to look at everything this season did combined and decide whether it worked in the grand scheme of things.

3. Furthermore...well, my opinion can change, and things that happen later on in the season could have influence and change my opinion of something.

Now with all that said and done, this is my review of season 2: Spirits!

---

The Legend Of Korra Season 2: Spirits Review

Tenzin

If you were to ask me which character overall got the best character development in this season, It is hands down Tenzin. For starters, having his two siblings Kya and Bumi around him helped us see different traits for his character that was only briefly shown with his family. His impatience, his caring but at times cold demeanour, his constant seriousness...

...And most fascinating of all, his insecurities.

People in the past have complained about how Tenzin might not actually be a good teacher for Korra, and in my respects this season does address. Much of the second half of the season is Tenzin admitting that he feels like he’s failing Korra, what with him being unable to go into the Spirit World and help Korra in her spiritual training.

It’s because of this that the scene between him and his father (or his hallucination of his father) is one of the best scenes in the season. Learning that all his life he desperately wanted to be just like his father, and Aang telling him to be his own person, is just the perfect way to end his story. It was built up right, it was heavily shown and it was a logical conclusion to it all.

This made seeing Tenzin help Korra out of her trauma after losing Raava all the much better, because we can believe that Tenzin can finally be her ideal mentor. He has overcome his own personal issues and he finally has the clarity and knowledge to help his student save the world.

Not to mention that the moments with his family were always fun and pleasant, even if they were a bit fillerish at times. The interactions between Tenzin, Kya and Bumi were especially enlightening and very believable. It does admittedly bother me that the whole “Aang played favourites” thing is never fully addressed; I hate to think everyone’s favourite little Airbender would do that, but who knows, maybe that will be addressed in the next season.

The Fight Scenes

Nothing surprising here, but I was personally never dissatisfied with the fight scenes. They were well animated, well choreographed and the creators found unique ways to make each fight different and unique. It’s partly because of that that the Kaiju-like final fight was okay for me. It was something new to the franchise and certainly not boring.

Nothing else to say here really. Great fight scenes, as one has come to expect of this franchise.

Bolin

This is admittedly not just an issue with this season but the entire series in general.

I’ve made no secret that I like Bolin a lot; he’s probably my favourite teen character in the Korra cast, but I’ve also not made it a secret that I’ve had issues with his treatment in the series. For so long he’d just been the comic relief, and that’s it. No other qualities to his character, no talents or awesome moments where we could take him seriously.

Looking at the season overall however has made me realise that...the creators weren’t really sure what to do with him.

They knew they had to do something with him, but it’s clear they struggled to write a character arc for him like they did with Mako, Tenzin and even Korra (the latter admittedly not done very well). Initially he became the hen pecked boyfriend of Eska, something which was amusing...at first, it did get old after a while, but obviously once Bolin left the Southern Water Tribe that entire element just had to be completely removed.

So they...started right from scratch again. They now made him a mover-star (get it?) and went down the traditional “Oh he’s popular so he’s an asshole now” which I fucking hated. It’s not only so bloody cliché but it was like the creators were saying “Bolin
can NEVER have anything good happen to him”.

And at the end they...brought back the fucking romance with Eska, and to be honest the execution of that sucked, but I’ll get to that later. As mentioned though, whatever character arc Bolin was supposed to have was quite clearly not executed well. The whole thing felt rushed, unfocused and gave a clear impression that the creators struggle to use Bolin outside of just comic relief.

That said, YES, Bolin’s awesome moment was AWESOME. Quite honestly that was my favourite scene in the season, but....

...Well, this is a question I will be asking a lot about this season: Does one truly great moment justify the large amount of crap we got beforehand? We’ll all have our own unique answer to that, but personally, no it wasn’t. Why couldn’t he have gotten this treatment earlier? Why did Bolin have to wait two season just be taken seriously?

I do have hope that with future seasons he’ll be treated with more respect, but so far? Not happy with Bolin’s portrayal.

Varrick

Best character in this season, hands down. Best character in all of Korra frankly.

Varrick is just brilliant. I love this guy. The guy stole the show in almost every scene he was in and I really do dread to think how much less entertaining the season would’ve been without him. His eccentricities aside though, Varrick very much represents those in the Avatar world who are constantly moving forward, thinking about the future and not looking back. The man is clearly a visionary and behind his bizarre behaviour is a keen mind and best of all, good aspirations.

You’ll all recall that initially I wasn’t too keen that he was becoming a villain, but now...for all my gripes with the seasons writing, I cannot deny that the way they handled this was excellent. They did not make the crucial mistake of just turning him into a generically evil bad guy (unlike a certain someone...). He was still charming, had clear restrictions to how far he’d go and was willing resolve issues without hurting others, i.e. when he tried to bribe Mako. Furthermore, I really liked how...uncertain I was that he actually WAS a villain. I did speculate that him being a villain was a red herring, and I liked that the season gave me room to think this.

Even when caught he was still helpful to the main characters, showing a respectful lack of anger towards them. The fact he escapes at the end not only makes me excited that he’ll return, but also that his role won’t be as a villain. I’m not entirely sure how they’ll use his character, but I highly doubt he’s gonna be giving the main characters too much grief.

It's a great shame that he's frankly involved in the worst sub-plot of the whole season...but I'll address that later, and it doesn’t change the fact that Varrick was arguably the best thing about this season. I wholeheartedly mean that.

Those...two...cops

Just.......why?

For a while, I actually had a theory that they were outright corrupt and assisting Varrick. It would’ve certainly justified their......existence! Their one-note asshole behaviour would’ve had purpose in this bloody season!

But no...they were just lazy, incompetent and downright unpleasant. Their sole fucking existence in the entire season was just mistreat Mako.

...

...

I don’t think I have the words describe how fucking weak that is. That just sucks.

I’m sorry if I’m sounding overdramatic, but frankly every scene with them in was downright unpleasant. Worse yet, they massively contributed to making Lin Beifong look bad!

......Speaking of which...

Lin Beifong

Oh Lin. Lin, Lin, Lin. What happened to you man?

You used to be so cool. In the first season you were one of the best characters. You were a hyper competent badass who was smart, witty, cold but truly caring and loyal to her men and allies. You sacrificing yourself to save Tenzins’ family was one of the most badass scenes in season one, and seeing you lose your Bending was one of the most heartbreaking.

Clearly though...Amon took more than just your Bending, didn’t he?

Let’s just...go over the stupid shit she does here, shall we?

. Refuses to listen to Mako’s reasonable theories because he’s not a Detective...even though he’s still one of her best cops...and she says nothing to disprove his theory.

. Lets those two ASSHOLE cops just flaunt around incompetently, often right in front of her and make her look incompetent for not having a problem with them.

. Is Raiko’s bitch for most of the season, even though she was willing to stand up to the council in season one.

. That said, assigns NO ONE to stand guard of him during the Nuktuk premiere.

. And to cap it all off, once Varrick has been arrested; she claims to have always known Mako would make a great detective and only THEN fires the two shitty cops.

This is just...so out of line with how she was in the previous season. I can respect having her too good would mean she could solve the conspiracy all by herself, but did you have to make her outright stupid? Outright incompetent? I don’t think you did.

I’ve heard rumours Lin will have a more prominent role in season 3, and if so creators, you’ve got a lot to fix with Lin.

Unalaq

Anyone who followed my reviews from beginning to now knows the story here.

When Unalaq first appeared, I was quite excited. I liked how for all his jerkass qualities, he was the only character present that clearly knew what he was doing with regards the spirits. That, and the fact that he initially treated Korra with a large amount of respect and confidence had me hoping that the franchise would have its first true Anti-Villain.

Aaaand we all know how that turned out, don’t we?

In the end Unalaq just became a generically evil, unsympathetic bore of a villain. They do try to explain his motivations and give him some depth, but oh Christ did it all fall short. You could never shake off the fact that he was working with the obviously evil spirit openly planning to do obviously evil things to the world if freed.

If the spirit you’re working for proudly proclaims that he will usher ’10,000 years of darkness’, then it’s rather impossible for you to have any remotely justifiable reasoning.

The thing is though, a full on evil villain is nothing new to the franchise, and there’s been so fantastic ones at that. Ozai, Azula and to an extent Amon are all very good villains, but what do they have that Unalaq lacks? Charisma, genuine fear of them, much more depth to their characters and most importantly, presence.

Azula constantly hunted the heroes, and while Amon and Ozai weren’t always seen, their foreboding actions that their minions acted out gave them a constant presence over the narrative. Unalaq though? After episode 4 he’s barely seen in the next few episodes, and with how little he does to retrieve Korra made him lose presence for a while.

In the end he wasn’t just an evil villain, he was a boring one at that, and villains like Vaatu and Varrick had to take up the slack. Heck, Varrick became the shows first real Anti-Villain (if Varrick could be considered a villain at all...). Overall though? Very disappointed Unalaq. Very disappointed indeed.

The Romance

First of all, kudos to the season for the way they handled the break up of Korra and Mako. I like how they paced that at the start, showing us how the two constantly bickered with each other and didn’t get along, so that when they did break up it felt very believable and well...right.

It DID have me worried for a minute regarding that contrived bullshit amnesia bit, but I loved the finale where they officially broke up. It was a very mature way to end it and a genuinely mature look at a relationship falling apart.

That said, the rest of romance? AKA, Mako/Asami & Bolin/Eska? Not so praise-worthy.

As previously mentioned, the Bolin/Eska thing was amusing at first, but I was also glad they initially ended it in episode 4. It-like everything else regarding Bolin-felt like just one giant joke, and milking one joke over and over never works out well.

But then, as we all know, they were hastily made back into an item...and hastily un-made again.

Then there is Mako/Asami. Initially they were just platonic friends, which I liked. It was again very grown up and we didn’t need contrived tension. Even after Mako and Korra broke up they still stayed initially at friends, and that kiss between Mako and Asami could at least initially be passed off as her finding comfort from her grief.

But then, next episode with them together, they’re a couple. No build up, no set up for this. They’re just together again.

...

I can actually sum up my criticism for both of these in one sentence: Why do we need this?

Why DOES Mako and Asami need to get back together? They interacted perfectly well together just as friends, what does them getting together actually contribute to the story? And with Bolin and Eska, why did you feel you have to bring back the romance in order to turn her against her father? I’m quite confident that could’ve been done without the romance, with Bolin appealing to her WITHOUT the romance, which initially had been very one-sided and just a joke. The latter is particularly annoying because at the end you don’t even commit to it! You break them up again! So what was the bloody point?!!

Some people will probably go “Oh it’ll be used in Season 3!” but that’s a bullshit argument. That’s like those who justify Superman’s lack of angst over killing Zod in Man of Steel by saying “He’ll angst next film!”. NO, why can’t it be done well NOW, in this season? Assumptions like that do not justify sloppy writing.

Creators, you’ve gone on record saying that you really like Teen romance stuff, and I respect that. Heck, I’ve got an affinity for it as well, but please, pleeeease, don’t force it into a story that doesn’t need it. This stuff is fluff, it’s excess weight.

I’m just saying guys. It IS possible for a male and female character of the same age to have a relationship....that ISN’T romantic, y’know?

Korra

Aaaaah Korra...Where do I start?

I suppose we should start at the beginning of the season. Things did not start off well at all. Suddenly our main character, after a season’s worth of character development, had regressed back into her bull headed, hot tempered outlook that she started as in season 1. It felt like the creators had just thrown season one out of the window and started right from scratch! I get that she was angry at Tenzin and her father, but to act THAT immaturely to both of them? Her father and her teacher, the man she helped save Republic City with?! Not excusable.

But then in episode 3, I actually really liked her there. I liked that she desperately tried to keep balance between the two tribes. I liked that she tried to be peacemaker and find a peaceful resolution to the rising tensions between them, and I liked the fact that she made up with her family. All round very good.

With episode 4...okay, attacking that Judge in his car was DUMB, and it did make her seem incredibly thuggish. Hell, it wouldn’t have worked had the judge not accidentally spilled the truth about Unalaq and made her change her plan. At the time though I was just willing to shrug that off as a onetime error by the creators.

And then episode 5 happened.

Jesus-Fucking-CHRIST episode 5....

Not only did she become even MORE of a thug, she acted like a bitch. Smashing her boyfriends table, screaming at him, threatening the Friggin’ President...It was...honestly, one of the most painful sights I’ve ever seen in this franchise.

Yea, her home is in danger and people aren’t giving her the answer she wants, but she doesn’t even TRY to understand other peoples viewpoints! Raiko had good reasoning to not help her, it would be an abuse of his authority (though he’s a massive IDIOT for not helping her in episode 11...). Furthermore, Mako had right to do what she did, she was using General Iroh to break regulation and start a bloody WAR!

Yea, slight divergence here but...General Iroh? Quickly willing to disobey your superiors and start a war? Ozai and Azula would be impressed.

So yea, in that episode it was painful to watch her act like a two year old, it really was. But then we have her portrayal after Beginnings.

Complete 180.

She’s calm, she’s mature, she’s respectful and thoughtful, she’s...everything she wasn’t before. In fact, Tenzin at times seemed less mature than her! It was a sudden but much welcomed change in her character. Even the episode where she’s reduced to a child and has to learn to be calm was really good, because it seemed like this lesson would stick.

And the finale reinforced that feeling. Now I’m quite hopeful that in future seasons she will act with maturity, she will be consistent with her character development and that she will stay being the Avatar the world truly needs...I believe...I hope...

...Please don’t make me go through the bullshit again...

That said, I do have to ask this question again: does the strong ending justify the crap that happened before? Once again, I’m gonna have to give you my opinion of that in the
conclusion.

Beginnings

Let’s face it: Beginnings was AWESOME!

Oh god I loved both of these episodes. I can respect that some people can’t get past the contradictions it caused to previous explanations of the franchises past, but I was honestly enamoured by it all to really care.

Everything is just great about these two episodes. I loved the animation, I loved Wan, I loved the ways the spirits were shown, I loved the history of the Avatars origins, I loved the beautiful platonic relationship between Wan and Raava (SEE CREATORS?! IT CAN BE DONE!). Everything was just...damn near perfect!

As I said before, this actually worked somewhat against seasons favour. It was so bloody good despite having NONE of the main cast in it. At the time Wan felt like an infinitely more likeable character than Korra, and I was more invested in the story here than I was with the main plot.

Frankly this is the only time in both season of Korra that an episode was to same standard as The Last Airbender. It really could go toe to toe with some of TLA’s best episodes, and it was what the season needed. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say it rejuvenated our hopes in the season.

The Numerous Plot Points

Let me just quickly list all of the plots and sub-plots in this season alone:

. The Main Threat With Unalaq and the Dark Spirits

. The Civil War

. The Republic City Conspiracy

. Tenzin’s Family Time

. Jinora’s Spiritual Awakening

. Wan’s Story and the Avatar Origins.

In theory, none of these are bad ideas and some of were overall executed very well(Tenzin’s Family Time, everything with Beginnings) but I think it’s quite clear here what the problem is:

For a 14 episode season, this is WAY too much, and believe me, it shows.

Let’s start with the main plot, the Dark Spirits. For the first two episodes everything was fine. They were established as a threat and Korra was given a way to help stop them (or so she believed).  Ideally this would be the shows top priority and focus all through the season.

But then the next two plot points effectively push it to the side. The Civil War and later the Republic City Conspiracy completely take over the season, and we have four episodes where the main threat, the thing this season is bloody named for, is almost completely forgotten about and is barely advanced. Four episodes!!

And what about Jinora and her little sub-plot? It was started in episode 2 but it takes the show SEVEN more episodes before it even brings it up again. No hints? No little scene with her seeing spirits? We do see her in scenes afterwards but you don’t even hint it? I’d have taken something like that over training flying lemurs, thank you very much.

Now yes, in terms of the main plot things do improve after Beginnings. Korra completely focuses on stopping Unalaq and Vaatu and for the most part the season does as well. Unfortunately though this causes the other now opened plot points to suffer.

The whole Civil War subplot-and in turn Tonraq and Unalaq’s past-is given a rushed and rather unsatisfactory ending, almost like the creators had forgotten all about it and shoehorned in an ending. Not very good considering this was something that had a bloody two parter dedicated to it.

What pisses me off the most though was The Republic City Conspiracy subplot. During it I was convinced that this was just the shows roundabout, drawn out way of eventually getting Raiko and his forces on Korra’s side. So, in episode 11 Varrick is arrested, Raiko is saved and he learns the full weight of what is going on in the South, and then he...

...Still decides not to help Korra and co.

And then they go to Varrick...and he gives them a battleship...that he’s had this whole time.

So that entire subplot...one which made up about a quarter of the entire season...was ultimately pointless.

......

......

......

.........WHAT?!!

I mean, fucking hell, what was the bloody point behind ANY of that?! An entire quarter of the season dedicated to absolute fluff, characters wasting our time and taking valuable time from more important plot points! Jesus Christ, what did we actually get out of all this shit?!

Varrick becoming a villain? I like him as a villain but we didn’t need him to become one.

Bolin succeeding at stuff? I’m pretty sure the creators could’ve done this through other ways. I certainly didn’t need that cliché ‘turning him arrogant’ bullshit either.

The rushed Mako/Asami romance? *Snorts*

Just...what a waste of time. All of this though, coupled with my other points, like the bad main villain, Lin’s poor portrayal, Korra’s erratic development, convinces me that this season needed to go through a serious rewrite. The creators should’ve gone through this again and trimmed it down to its essentials. There is so much waste and fluff that’s just not needed here.

I hate to say this, but perhaps the season should’ve had fewer episodes. That might have forced the creators to tighten the season and get rid of all this waste, but it pisses me off to that because last season I complained that it needed MORE episodes!

The whole season is an absolute mess...but even I have to admit...

The Finale

Yep, if there’s one thing that they go completely right, it was the finale.

This finale, the way they used their last episode to make a well paced and very meaty finale almost feels like an apology for the bullshit finale in season one. This just hit so many right cords for me that I must stand an applaud at it all.

Seeing Tenzin and Korra work together like that made their troublesome developments feel at least complete. Seeing Korra and Mako’s relationship ‘officially’ end was a fitting and grown up way to end it. Seeing Korra go through another lesson worked because this does seem like a lesson that will stick with her this time, and frankly seeing Korra become a worthy and great Avatar in her own right was satisfying on so many levels.

More than that however, the fact that the season ends with no status quo, with a visible and interesting change to the shows world does something any season ending should do: It makes me excited for more. I’m genuinely excited for season 3. I want to know what’s gonna happen next and how the world will handle the changes, and how the characters will continue to change.

I know for some people the deus ex machina’s in the finale hurts your enjoyment, and I can respect that, but if I must be completely hones the franchise in general has had issues with deus ex machina endings, even TLA. This one worked for the same reason TLA’s series finale worked. The EMOTIONS and THMES behind it all were incredibly solid that to me it just doesn’t matter.

Of course, that certain question must be asked again, and now, it is time we addressed it.

In Conclusion

So I’ve been asking this question over and over, and to me this question will decide for each of us whether we thought the show was good: Does the really good stuff make up for all of the bad? In other words, does the really strong ending and the excellent Beginnings episodes...make up for all of the erratic quality writing, needless fluff and unfocused storytelling in this season?

This ladies and gentlemen is where we will all differ. For some of you it does not make up for all of the crap and you don’t like the season. For some people however the good makes up for the bad and they can give the season a thumbs up, and I think it’s important that we all respect each others feelings to this because they are both understandable.

But now to me. Do I personally think the really good elements make up for all of the bad?

No, I don’t.

I had fun watching this season. I could watch it again and mostly enjoy myself, and I do think some of the good stuff is EXCELLENT....but I can’t call this an overall good season.

I’m sorry to those of you who feel differently, I know that isn’t the answer you wanted to hear, but I personally can’t look past the numerous and gapingly wide problems this season had. The serious and shocking slip ups this season made for me overwhelm the shows good qualities. This frankly made season one- a good but problematic season-look better by comparison.

As I stress though, if you feel the good DOES make up for the bad, or if you simply disagree with my criticism, I completely respect that, and to be honest I don’t think the season was outright horrible. For me, this was a very ‘meh’ season, ‘okay’ if I felt particularly generous.

And despite my large disappointment for this season, I am excited for season 3. For all its faults, the finale gives me hope that the creators have finally found their stride and know what they’re doing. I can’t say for certain, but I have hope that the next season will be the shows best season.

For this season though...the ideas were good, the aspirations were admirable, and some bits were even great, but the overall execution is quite frankly a mess, and one I personally am disappointed with.

And that ladies and gentleman, is my review.

---

Before I finish, I wanted to express my deepest gratitude to all of you who read and commented on all of my reviews. A fair few of you I already knew, but through these reviews I have made a ton of new friends and heard some very interesting opinions and ideas about a franchise we all seem to hold dear to us.

To all of you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I may have gotten into a few disagreements and arguments along the way, but you guys have made writing these reviews and absolute joy and pleasure to make.

All there is left to say now guys is: see you all at Book 3: Change!