The Legend of Korra: Book 2 - Spirit

The Legend of Korra was the successor of the beloved Airbender series and took my heart by storm with his young adult content, resolving a strong female lead character who also had a fragile side. We were by her side as she fell in love and fought against a villain that had the power to take everything away from her. Therefore I had high expectations that the second season would be great and remove the only flaw of the first season: a rushed Deus-Ex Machina ending. Don’t get me wrong. The second season is good but it was the worst of all Airbender ones by far and here are my reasons:

The story begins with another Dispute between Korra, her Father and her trainer Tenzin. All of them want to help her but she feels restrained. A feeling many young people have and she is eager to find her true inner self. She gets lured in by Tonraq, her new introduced uncle. He is the master in regard of exorcism bad spirits, the name of this season. At first everything seems to be peaceful for our old friends. 

Even Bolin gets a new girlfriend who is quite demanding in an emotionless way. One of the funniest part resolve around their relationship. Tonraq and his companions are rather weak and doesn’t feel terrified at all. Amon had a mysterious power that could destroy Korra. Tarrlok instead is just a simple water bender, NOTHING MORE!  

Without giving away too much which is kinda hard because there isn’t much more going on. We got nearly no surprise, the villain is clear since his introduction and the best part of Korra, the changing and dynamic relationships and love stories are nearly cut to zero. There is just one interesting turning point in the whole season that got me excited. It is resolved rather quickly and in a lousy way. The whole season feels like nothing really happens. You watch an episode and at the end of it nothing really changed. There are several fights that repeat themselves. The epic boss fight at the end takes around 4 episodes and is always the same. Korra loses, friends arrive and lose also and repeat. That’s boring because the creator introduce many meaningless stuff just to give Korra a power up and contradicting themselves.

The best part of the series was a 2 episode long break in which Wan is introduced. Wan is the first Avatar who made a terrible mistake that would lead the world into despair. Actually I thought for quite a while the number ONE was his name… Wans story is great because we see some of the origin stuff and the drawing style is changed into an ancient Chinese one. Its funny and interesting and just the best part. Truly saddening that there is so much less going on and the high potential of the first season is destroyed.

In conclusion: The second season is good and far better than most series. We got some funny moments with Korra and her friends, even a bit of changing relationships and attitudes. In the end nearly none of the really matters and the romantic part is nearly cut to zero. The story itself is not surprising and feels most of the time languish. I hope this season is just a typical introduction for season 3 and 4 or at least the result of working on many season at the same time due extreme tight deadline. I will watch them but I’m disappointed with this one and the rankings so far show that I’m not the only one who thinks so.