Korra Finale Thread (Spoilers Duh)

[Shock and Awe]

It was definitely a harsh ending, but it reflects what a real person may go through after the battles are over. We can see that the mercury poisoning(the poison was obviously mercury) has taken it's toll on her muscles and if you extrapolate the bags under her eyes to mercury poisonings side effect of insomnia you can get a pretty good feel for where the show may be going with this. I would not be surprised to see a good time skip or a really down beat first few episodes as she tries to cope with the effects, or tries to find treatment.

In addition I am nearly certain PTSD will become a theme in the next season. Another possible explanation for the lack of sleep is that she is suffering not just physically but psychologically from the traumatic battle. She almost died, almost failed the world by being the end of the avatar cycle, almost lost her father, and countless other loved ones. The costs were almost total, and even in victory they were high.

All and all I expect book to be focused around Healing. Not just Korra's physical and emotional healing, but that of the world. The Earth Kingdom must find some kind of peace and the spirits must find a place in the world. We may see an arc where Korra goes almost the opposite extreme from her former completely physically oriented self and finds strength in the Avatar's spiritual role.

Wow. Don't know why I didn't think about that being a thing too. She might be suffering from PTSD as well. After all the Hell she went through in these three seasons I'd be surprised if she wasn't an alcoholic, if she was legal of course. I know I sure as hell would be. I don't know how many times I've done this but counting up what's she's been through far outweighs most of what happened to Aang in the first series. I mean Aang had rough spots he had one truly low point and a bit of a second one with the Day of Black Sun.

Korra's list:
- Kidnapped and help prisoner by a crazy water bender.
- Had her bending taken away.
- Betrayed by her uncle.
- Losing Ravaa and barely able to stop Vatuu.
- Losing her connection with all her past lives.
- Thought her father was murdered.
- Almost killed by Zaheer.
- Poisoned and severely crippled.
- Constantly being told that she is a relic of an old age that needs to disappear.

I'm surprised she's even sane at this point. I probably would've tagged out a long time ago.

It was alluded to a bit more blatantly with the scene when she was held captive. The part where she saw her former foes coming back and basically saying the same thing that Zaheer was. I'm going to assume they appeared real to Korra and not just her making mental connections. We did see a bit of that with Aang before the invasion, but that was more jitters then PTSD, expect to see a very dark season four.

 

[Arina Love]

Too dark for me, i hate when shows end on such notes and it's safe to say i won't be watching season 4 unless she is out of that stupid wheelchair. Regret i bought book one and two BDs now, oh well lesson learned never buy BDs of a shows you didn't watch to completion.

 

[KazeAizen]

Too dark for me, i hate when shows end on such notes and it's safe to say i won't be watching season 4 unless she is out of that stupid wheelchair. Regret i bought book one and two BDs now, oh well lesson learned never buy BDs of a shows you didn't watch to completion.

But the show didn't end. We still have one more season left. Also why do you think its stupid?

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Too dark for me, i hate when shows end on such notes and it's safe to say i won't be watching season 4 unless she is out of that stupid wheelchair. Regret i bought book one and two BDs now, oh well lesson learned never buy BDs of a shows you didn't watch to completion.

That was a great end to the strongest season of this series and it's definitely got my attention for the concluding season.

It's bittersweet though. It's really something to see Korra so beaten. But at the same time we see so many characters grow.

I wonder how they handle the issues they brought up at the end, specifically surrounding korras current condition. The poison they used was obviously mercury (or this worlds variant of it) and one of the effects of mercury poisoning is muscular atrophy. Muscles can rebuild of course with time and effort, but depending on the severity of the poisons effect, it can be pretty destructive if not permanent. Considering that the poison was bended directly into her arms and legs I would say the damage is moderate to severe (Mercury poisons on contact,and here it's being applied directly to the muscles and blood stream). Although I think they might have stretched its potential effects for the sake of dramam, considering were dealing with Magically manipulated Poisons on a demi god I think we stretch the "realism" a tad.

Regardless, I hope this isn't some rapid turn around in episode 1 of season 4. This should be the next challenge for korra and possibly the most humbling of her trials yet. I doubt they will do a full season of korra chair bound. I would be completely on board if they did but realistically that would be too much and too heavy a subject matter even for a show as relatively progressive as the Avatar series.

Hopefully they do it tactfully. Even if she recovers it should reflect real people who struggle with such crippling afflictions.

Eh, even if she does end up permanently crippled, that doesn't really seem to stop other characters from being pretty badass.

Toph was the strongest earthbender of her time while being blind, one of the villains of this season (Ming Hua) had no arms, and there was a wheelchair bound character in Avatar The Last Air Bender who could fly, and he wasn't even a bender.

Honestly, it could be pretty neat if they keep Korra disabled to some degree, and it wouldn't necessarily mean she still couldn't kick lots of ass.

Still, next season could be pretty dark and sad for Korra. Best of luck to her.

 

[ecoho]

ok who else is thinking "mech legs from your friends at future industries" when you see Korra and Asami together?

if this happens I will be very happy

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Eh, even if she does end up permanently crippled, that doesn't really seem to stop other characters from being pretty badass.

Toph was the strongest earthbender of her time while being blind, one of the villains of this season (Ming Hua) had no arms, and there was a wheelchair bound character in Avatar The Last Air Bender who could fly, and he wasn't even a bender.

Honestly, it could be pretty neat if they keep Korra disabled to some degree, and it wouldn't necessarily mean she still couldn't kick lots of ass.

Still, next season could be pretty dark and sad for Korra. Best of luck to her.

I don't recall saying that she couldn't, just that she would need to adapt to her current condition.

We can't really talk about Ming or the Inventors son, as neither of those characters are developed enough to make a comparison. Toph however was born blind. It's all she knows. She was also really young when she learned how to use earth bending to compensate. It's as natural to her as using sight is to us.

Korra on the other hand will have to adapt. It's a very different experience for someone to become disabled, then it is for someone to be born so. It's the things we take for granted that make these things difficult...

That isn't the say she can't compensate with her bending, but even that would require her to adapt. Most of her bending styles focus on a lot of footwork.

Regardless, I don't think it will be permanent. Something will give and reset the status quo. It would be nice to have some lasting change on the character for the last season, but after the cop out at the end of season 1 (korra losing all her bending bar air only for aang to go all obi wan on her and save her) I don't think the studio has the stones to stick with a major character change.

 

[Krispness]

I thought Zaheer was a crazy lame villain. He wasn't strong (soundly defeated by Tenzin and could only stand up to Korra when she was greatly inhibited in some way), his plans failed constantly, and his motives were... well... dumb.

So you kill off the world leaders and let the world descend into chaos! ...Then what? What's the end goal there? What happens if people start to form societies again because they don't like the idea that they could (literally) be stabbed in the back at any moment for any or no reason?

I don't know why they let Zaheer live either. Letting him stick around only means he has the potential to escape again. He proved that he'd never give up any information since he hadn't in the first round of imprisonment and the rest of his team is dead so you may as well finish the job.

I think there has been a higher power at play from the start. Amon said spirits spoke to him, Unolaq dealt with spirits easily and often, Zaheer had constant access to the spirit world during his jail time. I doubt he's the leader of the red lotus, it ended up having so many members and yet he only commanded his small team and had to bust himself out. With him still alive I expect to see him shown as a puppet along with all the villains who betrayed someone that offered them strength. But they blew their load on Vaatu...who is more sinister than the three villains but didn't work with vaatu?

 

[KazeAizen]

I really digged this season. I was surprised at how grim it was compared to the original Avatar and the two preceding seasons. Lots of on-screen or nearly on-screen deaths, horrible situations for Korra, and generally just a lot darker in tone. Luckily there were also happy and funny moments, mainly thanks to Bolin, and I feel they found a good middleground between comedy and serious drama.

All in all;

Spoiler

I think you should share that with Doug Walker. He loves Varrick. Also that's pretty damn funny.

 

[KazeAizen]

I thought Zaheer was a crazy lame villain. He wasn't strong (soundly defeated by Tenzin and could only stand up to Korra when she was greatly inhibited in some way), his plans failed constantly, and his motives were... well... dumb.

So you kill off the world leaders and let the world descend into chaos! ...Then what? What's the end goal there? What happens if people start to form societies again because they don't like the idea that they could (literally) be stabbed in the back at any moment for any or no reason?

I don't know why they let Zaheer live either. Letting him stick around only means he has the potential to escape again. He proved that he'd never give up any information since he hadn't in the first round of imprisonment and the rest of his team is dead so you may as well finish the job.

I think there has been a higher power at play from the start. Amon said spirits spoke to him, Unolaq dealt with spirits easily and often, Zaheer had constant access to the spirit world during his jail time. I doubt he's the leader of the red lotus, it ended up having so many members and yet he only commanded his small team and had to bust himself out. With him still alive I expect to see him shown as a puppet along with all the villains who betrayed someone that offered them strength. But they blew their load on Vaatu...who is more sinister than the three villains but didn't work with vaatu?

I don't think a higher power than Vatu is at play. As for Amon saying he communed with the spirits. That's honestly a load. He was in most senses of the word a false prophet. The spirits "talked" with him saying that Avatar is no longer needed and "gave" him the ability to remove bending. Turns out the ability is just a really advanced form of blood bending so essentially just parlor tricks instead of something spiritually given. Kind of like what most "false prophets" are defined as in various religious texts. Amon is the only villain who didn't commune with the spirits or spirit world.

 

[FolloweroftheApoetic]

I get what you're saying.

Maybe TV has just moved a little more liberal, or that it was a GOOD THING that Korra started to get released digitally?

That is debatable. Did those concept fit in with the rest of their programing. Was it the death of the earth queen or just how deep in that show got. I mean it was pretty high concept when they brought in the equalists in season one and the ending where they more or less stated that it wasn't just going to be bad guys with national interests viaing for control of the world but that terror was going to be a consistent label for the problems in the avatar world from there in... just kind of hits close to home. Also she is in a wheel chair crying for extremely ambiguous reasons. You can kind of say oh well she was poisoned but really what did she see at the end of it all you cant really tell you kind of have to think of the implications of everything that has occurred. Is that too much for nickolodian. Maybe not in New Jersey. I feel like people grow from watching stuff like that but yeah. That is debatable.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

ok who else is thinking "mech legs from your friends at future industries" when you see Korra and Asami together?

if this happens I will be very happy

I was thinking more along the lines of floating Professor X chair powered by airbending.

Spoiler

 

[Gatx]

Too dark for me, i hate when shows end on such notes and it's safe to say i won't be watching season 4 unless she is out of that stupid wheelchair. Regret i bought book one and two BDs now, oh well lesson learned never buy BDs of a shows you didn't watch to completion.

Same here. The Airbenders becoming Avatar Jedi was a little weird for me, and Korra just gets too much of a beat down for almost no reason (maybe it's some kind of allegory for all the hate from fans the show seems to get about her character?).