So The Legend of Korra ended after four seasons. And what a way to go out! I might as well start off with the ending:
Yes, it made a lot of people very happy. Me included! But let us hold off on talking about the best couple of all time for a bit and talk a bit more generally about the show, where it started, and where it ended.
To be honest, I had extremely mixed feelings about the first three seasons of Korra. I loved most of the characters, I found the style amazing, and I found the story ideas and conflicts more interesting than those of, say, The Last Airbender. However, season after season I was disappointed, because I didn't think the show did all these amazing characters and ideas justice. The politics and philosophies of the struggles the characters were involved in were often glossed over and not brought to any kind of satisfying conclusion (not even in terms of "this will be difficult and we'll keep working on it"), and characters consistently seemed to fail to learn from what obviously was intended to be learning opportunities. The former made the characters and conflict a bit shallow and the progression of the world unsatisfying, while the latter made some of the characters who were supposed to be wise seem downright stupid.
Some of this is just a matter of expectation - is it possible to make a Nickelodeon show which has a heavy dose of domestic politics and difficult questions how we approach issues in society? I hoped it would be, but it seems that they weren't quite willing to take that step. The Last Airbender's overarching narrative was about the fight against a megalomaniac nationalist tyrant and focused on a band of travellers going from place to place, and that makes writing for it much simpler than when you stay in the same place and have the villains be motivated by domestic politics and being the ones "fighting the power". This becomes particularly clear when you get to the fourth season and the villain is... a megalomaniac nationalist tyrant. The core conflict is a bit more black and white (though Avatar has thankfully never completely dehumanized their villains (not counting the faceless goons)) and in that setting, the characters become a lot better at handling the conflict and by virtue of that become more likeable. It's just so much easier to be a pure good guy when you're fighting an evil bad guy with a doomsday weapon.
In addition to that, season 4 of Korra was the season where Korra actually learned her lessons, and the fact that she does makes the previous seasons better - it's much more enjoyable watching someone who has difficulty learning but who you know will get there in the end than watching someone who will never learn. She is also surrounded by people who by virtue of the more simplistic nature of the conflict look a lot better than they had in previous seasons. Tenzin and Lin, for instance, often came off as rather stupid in the first three seasons. It would have been OK if they had had life philosophies that didn't quite work with who Korra was as a person or how Republic City was progressing, but often they instead just seemed bone-headed. The earlier seasons also sort of wasted appearances by people like Iroh, who (as I recall) said all the right things, but then had Korra not internalizing those lessons at all. Which would have been fine (learning is difficult), but I, at least, needed to see some awareness that lessons had not been learned.
I think a large part of what I like with the final season is the fact that the writers acknowledged a lot of the problems I'd had leading up to it. They did talk about the effect of past events, they did talk about how Korra in the earlier seasons hadn't quite "won", as much as she had just beaten the bad guy, and how learning who to be as the Avatar had been very difficult for her. Add to that a simpler but more satisfying conflict, far fewer instances of me wondering what the hell the characters were thinking, and a more satisfying return character appearance with Toph, season four was great, and made the previous seasons greater in the process.
Am I forgetting something else that was important?
Oh right. That!
This is one of those situations where I've almost spent the entire run of the show talking to friends about how Korra and Asami would be awesome together. Their response has usually been "we don't watch the show, we don't know what you're talking about" but as usual, that hasn't stopped me. Asami starting out was a good character, she's cool and smart, and in some ways everything that Korra is not. She was the perfect romantic foil in her relationship with Mako, but instead of writing her as a villain, the writers thankfully wrote her as a good and reliable friend. The story was not "dastardly femme fatale stealing Korra's man" but rather "love can be difficult and friendship is precious". As the series progressed, so did Korra and Asami's friendship and their care and love for each other was obvious. That it then developed to romance felt good. Right. And well in line with where they are as characters. Mako had some great moments in the clip show, where he talked about how his relationships were the right thing when they happened but that their time had passed. This relationship feels like the right thing for Korra and Asami now, and I think they will both be good for each other.
I also think it's a relationship interesting for the world of Avatar. Asami is the epitome of a driven woman in an industrializing world, navigating a technology that's always changing and the political and social life of the world. Korra's talents talents mostly lie elsewhere and as the Avatar she represents the spiritual balance of the world. It's a relationship that makes sense for the world at that point in time - industrialization and progress will happen, and Korra and Asami together will be a force to make sure that it happens in a way that's environmentally sound and keeps the balance of the world. If there would ever be more The Legend of Korra I would like a season that would be a positive mirror image to Princess Mononoke where they deal with the environmental challenges of an expanding population and technological development.
On the whole, The Legend of Korra ended on such a great, positive note that I now feel good about the entire series. So often TV shows end in a way that feels like it came out of nowhere or that it feels like the writers ran out of interesting things to say well before the ending, but this show did it right.
As a reader of genre fiction, in particular fantasy and science fiction, I have read a whole lot of stories set in fictional worlds (of course, one can make the argument that our own world is as fictional when put into a story). Over the years, I've gained an appreciation for worlds that are logically coherent, fantastic, or just plain neat, and I figured I'd list my favourite ones.
Most of this series takes place in Annwn, which is a world to which the Gaul tribe of the Deveti flee from our own world in the time of the Romans. The story is set over the next 1200 years as society, technology and politics change over time, and the meeting of the immigrating humans and the peoples that already live in that world.
Apart from the interesting interactions between humans and other races, the Deverry Cycle also has well-developed magic system akin to that of the Kabbalah or Golden Dawn, as well as a clear idea how other planes connect to the physical one. Though you can notice some changes in the world-building over time, it's a well-constructed and researched world that I wouldn't mind seeing more of (especially with the technological developments hinted at at times).
Alternate Earth of 1837 (Gregorian Calendar) from Cold Magic by Kate Elliott.
The world of Cold Magic is our own. Except, you know, for the magic, the cold, the salt ghouls who took over Africa, the Malinese who immigrated with all their wealth and changed the political balance in Europe, the surviving Roman Empire, the glacier that covers Scandinavia and the rest of the north and the dinosaur-descended trolls who live in North America. Cold Magic has a great world, in my mind, that changes some fundamentals and drives those fundamentals to large-scale change millennia later. Another thing that really gets me excited is that it's a world that's on the brink of mass movement politics and the industrial revolution, and a Napoleon-like character making waves.
Apart from the physical, the spirit realm is well-represented and so far, Elliott seems to have a firm grasp of where she wants to take it.
Terra GirlGenius (or whatever) from Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio.
The world in Girl Genius is in the genre of gaslamp fantasy (earlier steampunk) but with the essential ingredient of MAD SCIENCE! to spice it up a bit. Britannia has a sunken empire with a power-mad queen,, no one has managed to travel to America and back for years, small-time sparks go insane and create various abominations to gods and nature, warrior princesses from hidden nations roam the countryside in traveling circuses, and Pax Wulfenbach keeps Europa relatively calm. That's the world we're thrown into and gets to see through the eyes of Agatha Heterodyne, heir of long-lost heroes. Unlike the first two worlds, the world of Girl Genius is not particularly famed for logical consistency, opting instead for BATSHIT INSANE, and it is completely wonderful.
At the moment, they are about to wake a long slumbering insane castle to protect themselves from the giant airship that is Castle Wulfenbach. Also dragons and mind-controlling aunts. Though I live just about everything about the world, the series keeps offering up mysteries to which I want answers which makes the world even better. And I can't wait for the battle that will ensue between Zeetha, warrior princess, and Bang, pirate queen.
The Universe of Warhammer 40k by Games Workshop.
The universe in Warhammer 40k is crazy. The setting is Gothic science-fantasy on a galactic scale, and it features a theo-fascist Imperium of Mankind, who can be seen as the "good guys" of the setting, except for sacrificing 10 000 people to their undead emperor a day, preferring to wipe out the population of a whole planet rather than accept the risk of heresy, who keep scientific advancement suppressed and in the hands of techno-priests, and other general insanity. Of course, when your enemies are the forces of Chaos who can take over people's minds and invade worlds with demons, fungus-based orks who pillage worlds for fun, undead mechanical beings, an alien insect-like species that live only for feeding, and the other unpleasantries of that universe, maybe that approach makes sense (not really). In truth, I probably just like it for the insane quotes the franchise produces.
"An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded."
Arda by JRR Tolkien.
One of the most successful fictional worlds ever. Though I have my problems with the books Tolkien produced, I can still lose several hours reading wikis and other sources about Middle-earth, the history of the elves, the curse of Fëanor, and everything else Tolkien wove into a great mythological whole.
Though the sci-fi universe she created with the Dendarii (Miles Vorkosigan/Naismith) series is more popular, and though I like that a lot as well, Lois McMaster Bujold really got me with the world in Curse of Chalion, though mostly because of the theology. The three books in the series highlight heroes that grapple with great problems and the questionable blessing of sainthood, with the gods of that world trying to reach into the world through them to bring about their wanted end. Though not particularly well-developed, getting to see her world through the eyes of her ever-cynical protagonists makes it a joy to experience, and the five gods of Mother, Father, Son, Daughter, and Bastard make for an interesting group and theological setting.
There are plenty of other worlds I have enjoyed over the years, and series like Babylon 5, Mass Effect, The Fourlands by Steph Swainston (who takes the fantastic to the next level with gardens of meat!), The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, the large, sprawling mess of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, and the interesting magic system and depressing world of Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, but on the whole the worlds above ar the ones I've spent the most time thinking about, at least recently.
