Oh yeah, I keep on forgetting that the Wan episodes are part of Book 2. They’re indeed standout eps.
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Those were pretty much what I was referring to in terms of the second half of Book 2. But Iroh’s return was another highlight (the feels) and the final fight between the two Avatars was awesome…
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Uh
Well there were some good things, but the last two episodes were the low point of both shows, IMO
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Hmmm…well, I mean, I can wholeheartedly agree that they weren’t the high point (that goes to Season 3, for me) but I think that the first half of Book 2 had a lot of moments that were lower than the finale. That whole part of the season was, well, rather dull. The whole Spirit Portal/Unalaq plot seemed rather unimportant in comparison to the stakes of Amon’s revolution, and the various romantic/sibling rivalry subplots took away from what I thought the central plot was going to be.
It was only after the Wan episodes, I think, that the central idea of the whole season began to take shape. IMO, the Harmonic Convergence/Raava and Vaatu plot should have been brought up from the beginning. Once they were, I think the season improved dramatically. That’s why I think the first half of Season 2 is–to use your words–the “low point” of the show. Not that the finale was spectacular, but I think it was an improvement…
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I thought it was off to an interesting start, to be honest, with the looming Civil War and stuff
I will give you that.
I disagree; the middle of the season was the perfect placement for that.
It definitely had more of a direction, and the stuff with Varrick was compelling, but Unalaq became more and more boring as he went full ‘evil lord of generic darkness’ on us.
The finale sucked ■■■. Aside from the really heartfelt scene with Tenzin in the Fog Of Lost Souls, the last two episodes were a mess of contrived coincidences and repetitive action scenes. (Korra gets beat down. Korra finds some reserve of power to break out of her bad position and fights. Korra gets beat down again.) And while I think they worked with it well in Books 3 and 4, it really ticked me off that they cleared out the whole ‘past lives’ thing. And the final battle being between Unavaatu and Giant Blue Korra (seriously what the heck was up with that?) in the middle of Republic City’s harbor was stupid and silly and undermined the cosmic feel such a conflict was supposed to have.
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Sure, that had the potential to be interesting, but nothing really came of it. There was some tension, the incident where Tonraq got arrested, then Korra freed him and basically let Unalaq’s forces take over, followed by a brief attempt at Tonraq to regain control that failed miserably. If they wanted to do a civil war, I would rather have had them go all the way.
The only thing that makes me want it to have been earlier was that it seemed to come out of left field. Sure, there was some spirit-y stuff going on, and there was the statue of Wan, but the actual direction they were going didn’t seem to come naturally from that. If Vaatu and Unalaq’s influence on the unfolding events had been hinted at earlier, the final reveal of the backstory mid-season would have been more satisfying, because Vaatu would have been hinted at from the beginning, making his reveal seem more like a build-up from the beginning, rather than the middle.
Yeah, I can see your point there…
I get that–but I think there’s the potential for her to get them back eventually. The Tree of Time, in particular, strikes me as a possible avenue for restoring those past lives.
They did go a little far out with that one, I’ll admit. I’m not sure what other options they could have gone with that wouldn’t have seemed far out, though…
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Agreed
Oh, that makes more sense. I thought you were saying that they should have opened up the season with Wan’s story.
Ooh, I suppose that is possible…
True. The whole grand ‘good vs evil on a cosmic scale’ idea is hard to work with in general, really, so I guess I can’t fault them for trying their best… I just think the final result still suffered, compared to the more political and personal conflicts of the other seasons.
Oh, no, not like that! Yeah, I just wanted the first half to be more clear on the trajectory of the season than it was. Like the other seasons–in Book 1 you knew it was gonna be Amon vs. Korra all the way, Book 3 was all about the Red Lotus coming back, and Book 4 was Kuvira’s power grab. With Book 2, it seemed disjointed, with the first half seemingly being about Unalaq’s attempt to sway Korra with spirit knowledge, while also having a separate conflict with the spirits themselves, plus all that other stuff in the background. If Unalaq and the evil spirits had been more linked as allied villains in the first half, I would have been much more comfortable with his sudden ■■■■■ to a cosmic plot, rather than a mere earthly grab at power, which seemed to be his initial motive.
In the end, though, I follow the words of an online blogger who did reviews for all of Korra (I forget his name) who reminded us that Mike and Bryan at their worst are better than Michael Bay at his best, so it’s really a matter of something being “less good,” rather than “outright bad,” IMO.
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Yeah, I can see that.
Quite true. 
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I’d say that was one of Book 2’s major faults. While most of the spirit stuff turned out really interesting, the water tribe civil war was a really interesting conflict that I felt like they dropped with no meaningful resolution. All that being said, Book 2 still really had an awesome trailer:
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It gets better as it goes on. MUCH, MUCH BETTER.
Seriously, you don’t like TLA’s music? What is it exactly you dislike about it?
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You’re just coming off Korra’s epic sound track, which is different that Avatar’s epic sound track. Don’t worry, I had the same thing happen to me when I went from bingewatching Korra to Avatar. You get used to it.
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I honestly don’t remember the early season 1 music all that well, but it gets much better. Have you seen the first Agni-Kai yet?
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I noticed that too, but keep in mind TLA ran from 2005-2008, while Korra was 2012-2014, so of course the newer show is going to have better artstyle. However, it does get better in Books 2 and 3.
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I believe TLA also used a different studio than LOK…
Just out of curiosity, @Apophyx, did you purposefully start with Korra, or was that simply the show you were exposed to first?
I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed with TLA, though. It’s not as political as Korra, and there’s less angsty teen stuff. But even though it’s very lighthearted at times, and there are episodes that really make you laugh, there are also plenty that make you think, and even a few that might make you cry (I’m thinking of one specific little short from Season 2, if you other fans catch my drift 
)…
Both series are truly amazing, whether you’re watching them for the first time or the hundredth…
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The finales of Books 2 and 3 are probably some of the best I’ve ever seen, tbh.
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