I watched Avatar: The Last Airbender for the first time last year. Yeah, that's right. It aired from 2005-2008, so I was VERY late to the fold. I'm so thankful I finally watched it, because it's my favorite television show of all time. I was so pumped after watching it that I dived right into Book 1 of Legend of Korra. Book 2 came out soon after Book 1, so I kept up with Book 2 as it was airing. With LoK, I was instantly transported into the futuristic world, loved that we had a female Avatar, and really enjoyed the more mature feel. However, while I chose not to compare, I felt that neither Book 1 nor Book 2 quite reached the greatness of The Last Airbender. For one, while I liked the new Team Avatar (comprised of Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin), none of them quite had the depth or engaging personalities like Aang, Sokka, Katara, Toph, and Zuko. Also, while both Books their story well, the finales of both felt a little too easily wrapped up, as though nothing was lost. I still like the finales, but I was tired of everything being wrapped with a nice little bow tie. And 12 and 14 episodes per book felt slightly too short to me. And with Book 2, the first half was animated by a less-talented studio due to negotation issues, so it looked highly inferior the the latter half and to Book 1. And both suffered a bit from forced romantic crap (not completely terrible, but distracting and rendering certain characters *cough Mako* unlikeable.
Enter Book 3: Change.
WOW! Not since Book 3 of The Last Airbender have I been so blown away by Avatar, let alone television period. From the opening episode, I could tell Book 3 was on the right track. Important characters were introduced and established naturally, and every flaw that I felt the first two books had was fixed 100%. This Book, while a mere 13 episodes, does NOT feel too short whatsoever. It is PERFECTLY paced the entire way, and there is not a single boring episode. The new characters are all great, old faces (ZUKO!!) return, and the team actually travels to different locales from Republic City and the water tribes. The story in particular is fascinating, smartly developed, and perfectly paced. You feel the tension growing stronger throughout each one, and that tension never truly lets up until the last second of this book.
The score is the best of all of Avatar in my opinion. It is both magical and extremely intense, whether through more silent moments or in intense action scenes. And the animation (animated fully by Studio Mir, thank God!) is among the best I have EVER witnessed.
The biggest plus of the Book to me, however, is that team Avatar finally FEELS like team Avatar!! Korra is much more level-headed than she has ever been, and she is much smarter now as well. I've always had a soft-spot for Asami, who I felt was a compelling character but was sidelined often. Not here. Thankfully, Book 3 does not focus on romantic crap at all (if anything, it's between Korra and Asami), and we finally see them bond as girl-friends; the two of them make an excellent team and Asami gets some real Bad*** moments. As for Mako and Bolin, all I can say is hallelujah!! I LOVED these guys in Book 3. I've always liked Bolin, but his jokes were a bit stale in Book 2, making him feel like a 50 cent version of Sokka. And I only liked Mako as a detective in Book 2, but the most I could say about him before was that he was "okay." I truly cared for these guys here, especially as we learned more about their past and saw them bond with family and as brothers. Mako was intelligent and reasonable here, and the fact that he wasn't subject to be "Love interest for our two main heroines" made him a MUCH more likeable (dare I say, loveable, character). There is also more screen time and development for the great ensemble of adult characters, from Tenzin (my favorite), Lin Bei Fong, Bumi, and Kya.
I'm going to wrap this up because I could go on for days about how great this is. The ratings had been gradually slipping for LoK on Nickelodeon, leading to Nick no longer airing the show on its network. Thankfully, the show is not cancelled, as it is under contract for four books, and Book 4 is already underway. All I can say is, the drop in ratings is NOT due to a decline in quality. As nostalgic as I already am for The Last Airbender, and as much as I loved all 3 books, I think Book 3: Change is the best season of ALL of Avatar, and I don't see that opinion changing until perhaps Book 4 of LoK). Now I can finally be as passionate about Korra as I am about The Last Airbender, and I appreciate Books 1 and 2 of LoK more since they were leading up to this masterpiece.
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Reviews with images
Avatar TLA and LOK is the best animation ever!!
DiMartino and Konietzko have never failed. Avatar TLA and LOK has been Nicks best series to date.
Top reviews from other countries
Xavier
El tercer capítulo de esta serie muestra lo mejor de esta saga.
Reviewed in Mexico on July 23, 2015