LoK Book 3 Finale Ramble

A/N: A number of people have been asking me on my feelings about the Book 3 finale to Legend of Korra, so be aware that while I do not go into much detail here, there ARE some spoiler-ish things I discuss.

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The Book 3 finale? It was OK. It was very FUN, and I loved a lot of the scenery and the music. The fight scenes were neat, and I enjoyed the melancholic ending with Korra really being out of sorts. It sets up what could be a potentially intriguing Book 4, but given how Books 2 and 3 dismissed the intriguing set-up they had almost immediately…I’m not getting my hopes up. Book 3 was entertaining, but I feel emotionally empty, apathetic — like even the last few minutes were there specifically to force an emotional reaction out of me, like so many other aspects of LoK. It’s like an old friend trying to guilt trip you or emotionally manipulate you into paying attention to them. A good friend of mine made that metaphor about her feelings with LoK and it really opened my eyes to why it rubs me the wrong way a lot of the time — it feels like the themes, messages, and character development get tossed aside in favor of the writing trying to manipulate the emotions of the audience. That can be entertaining, sure, but it can leave you feeling empty and uncaring after all is said and done, and I guess that’s where I’m at.

We got a ton of NOTHING as far as explanations are concerned. The Red Lotus is now just a typical “Illuminati” villain group that could spring at any moment, given them a cheap way of suddenly introducing shock-twisty villains. The rise of random-ass people becoming airbenders is also essentially dismissed. There’s no reasonable explanation at all, not even an ATTEMPT at explanation. Tenzin literally uses the word “somehow.” We might as well have added “because of reasons.” I’m not a fan of seeing Aang and Katara and Tenzin’s legacy to grow Air Nation culture (which was complex and interesting with the Air Acolyte dynamic) reduced to “Super Squad Airbending Heroes” without even an explanation for why they EXIST (and Harmonic Convergence/Portals isn’t an explanation, because neither of those have actually been explained, either). It could’ve been something as simple as “The world is trying to self-correct its own elemental imbalance” or something, but…nope. Nothing. Because in LoK the reasons or the consequences don’t matter — all that matters is “Are we making the audience feel X or Y at a specific moment?”

Book 3 concluded with many of the same unfortunate plot devices that plagued Book 2 and even 1 in the thematic sense: Korra was captured/defeated, and someone else bailed her out (again). I’m so damned sick of the MAIN CHARACTER of this show not ever getting the chance to shine, to save herself in a way that’s rewarding and not reliant on punching shit.

I also honestly expected Zaheer’s scheme to be more thoughtful. At least he made a good point about his desire to return the world to natural, non-segregated order. Anarchy isn’t really the best way to go about that, and a desire to just kill the Avatar and have that be it is also just typically “bad-guy-ish,” lacking the creative twist that killing the Earth Queen had. If Korra died, I don’t honestly think it would change the world that much because since Aang’s time, being the Avatar doesn’t seem to matter that much anymore.

Book 3 was definitely better than Book 2, in just about every way. I’m just not a fan of Michael D’s plot/writing style (I could write an essay on how problematic his approach is), and Book 3 smells a LOT of him leading the story along. It was a fun ride with great production values, and much more structure and better pacing than Book 2, but it didn’t excite me or engage me in the ways Book 1 did. Maybe Book 4 can accomplish that if the series can actually commit to something intriguing with the teary-eyed closing frame we saw here.

Here’s hoping those last few minutes make Book 4 ACTUALLY ‘change’ direction. For now, it was a fun ride, and now it’ll be a slow slog until the finale season.

I’m sure some people, when they see folks passing off LoK with a “meh” like this, are probably racking their brains with confusion. “It’s so pretty! It’s got such good music! So much hard work clearly went into its production!”

Exactly. And the writing just leaves me feeling “meh” when all is said and done. Believe it, it hurts ME to feel that way because I KNOW so much work goes into it. But a fuck-ton of work and production values also go into the Superbowl, and that doesn’t exactly do much for me, either. Because the narrative doesn’t engage me. It’s just there to entertain. Now, LoK is much more intriguing than the Super Bowl to me, but not nearly as much as other shows I’ve become invested in during the past year.

Other animated shows I’ve seen in the past year managed to actually have explanations that made sense and made me THINK about what I was watching. Book 3 didn’t do that. Shows like Steins;Gate, Tron: Uprising, and Ergo Proxy made me THINK about the future and about humanity and what we are capable of accomplishing, and where we might go as a species, and what that means for us right now. Shows like Haruhi Suzumiya and Kill La Kill made me THINK about the ridiculous repetitive tropes our media relies on, how it objectifies women, and how dumb that is. Shows like Cowboy Bebop, FMA (OK, those two aren’t within the past year) and Michiko & Hatchin made me THINK about my own existence and place in the world and why I am who I .Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and Adventure Time have me laughing WITH fictional people, not AT formulaic punchlines at Bolin’s expense. And ALL of the shows I just listed had me CARING about the characters and wanting to watch more just to “get to know” them as fictional people.

LoK tries so hard and struggles to try and MAKE its audience do these things, but the ways in which it does — the particular writing tactics used (tactics, not organic storytelling), they end up “making” me feel like someone’s trying to win me over or pull wool over my eyes. Like Michael D. believes that if you tick off the same boxes over and over your story will hit people’s pressure points in the exact way you want them to. And I don’t appreciate that formulaic, manipulative slant on stories, especially when I all-time favorite world is being pissed on in an attempt to do so.

   "Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
   —Hannah Arendt

Legend of Korra goes to great lengths to TELL US what we’re supposed to be thinking, or how we’re supposed to be feeling. And when it’s not doing that, it’s directionless, merely kicking and thrusting to elicit a shock, or a wow. I miss Korra and Tenzin arguing and then making up. I miss Bolin and Korra going out on a 30 second date that had more genuine romance than (almost) every other romantic thing in this show combined (I’ll admit those two episodes with Bolin and Opal had some brief but really great romance). I miss when the characters didn’t TELL me how funny ___ is or how that’s “Classic ___” or how WISE and STRONG ___ is and instead I was left to come to my own conclusions about who these people were and what was so great or not so great about them. Book 3 had MUCH better pacing and MUCH better overall structure and a lot more character development, but it still relied on tactics cited above, and on top of that, it’s a sequel to ATLA which means it basically pissed all over the beauty of Aang’s story just for shock twists.

You know something Bryan used to say back before Legend of Korra even aired? Something that used to inspire me so much?

   "We just want to tell stories from an honest place."

Legend of Korra doesn’t seem to do that anymore. Not the way it used to, not the way ATLA did, and not the way those other shows I listed do.

And one last word that I think gets at how I feel about LoK these days, and what ATLA did (and other shows I cited above) which are examples.

   "You are not in control of your or your character’s legacy. Trying to force a character to be memorable is, to me, like trying to make yourself memorable - people will think you’re a pretentious sap. You can make your characters lovable by having them give love to others, by showing them trying their hardest, and by struggling against their own limitations. Be sure to give them limitations. You can make them funny, quirky, unique, or, even better, you can base them on real-life people you know and toss out the elements you are copying from someone else’s work. Don’t force. Tell the truth, and the truth will be funny.”
   - Evan Gore (Writer for The Weekenders)