For those of you who couldn’t wait to see the finale premiere on Friday and watched it online (thanks to the generosity of the creators), The Legend of Korra Book 2: Spirits has come to an end after just about two months since it began. A new storyline begins in Book 2 as dark spirits start popping up in the physical world and attacking people, leaving it up to Avatar Korra to find and solve the problem. But spirits aren’t the only issue. Despite having defeated a couple of dangerous men from bringing chaos to Republic City, new human threats are rising and a little to close to home for Korra, bringing her back home to the Southern Water Tribe as family secrets are revealed and war looms once more.
Book 2 introduces some attention-grabbing new elements to an old bag of favorites, mixing things up in the Avatar with spirits. Now, this is hardly the first time spirits have come into play, given that the Avatar–the protagonist of both the original series and sequel–acts as the link between the spirit world and the physical world inhabited by humans. Fans of the original series will be familiar with Aang and friends’ various encounters with the spirit world/spirits, from Aang’s numerous conversations with past lives and spirits to the moon spirit’s involvement in a very emotional season one finale. But Korra takes things to a new level by exploring why the two worlds are separate which requires delving deep into the Avatar’s past. For those of you who missed the combination of the spiritual and physical world adventures in The Legend of Korra: Book 1, your wish has been fulfilled nicely in the second entry in the series.
The adventures in the spirit world lead to several characters’ discovering new strengths, including the title character, Korra, and her mentor’s daughter, Jinora. Korra continues to grow from last season, physically strong as ever and connecting more deeply with her spiritual side. As I mentioned in my previous post on Korra, this female protagonist has never been the type that needs more physical power so, it was good to see her challenged once again to explore her connection with a spiritual, emotional side as she enters the spirit world and deals with the problems rising within her family. Korra has matured even more by the end of Book 2 and, while it is a little bittersweet for reasons you’ll have to watch to find out, the series has pushed her to a new level of independence. Of course, I also love a good action scene and Korra is in plenty of them. In addition, Jinora, who played a minor role in Book 1, gets a fairly substantial one as she discovers that through her strong connection to the spirits she can help Korra in a way no one else can. As always, there are no shortages of strong, dynamic female characters in the Avatar world as the series brings back the old ones and adds new ones from Raava the light spirit to Kana, the daughter of Aang and Katara, and Korra’s slightly frightening cousin.
While I wholly enjoyed many of the new additions to the story, there was one reoccurring aspect from Book 1 that I could have done without: the love triangle between Korra, Mako, and Asami. I appreciate a good romance, but rather than add to the overall story, this trope takes away some of the charm of Korra for me. The fact that the creators of Avatar are employing one of the oldest tricks in the book is not so much the problem as is the execution. Love triangles exist to add drama and an obstacle to what could otherwise be a clean shot to romance (of course romance is never so simple). But as commonly used a plot convention as it is, I actually think it’s difficult to pull off in a satisfying fashion. In many cases, for example, someone in the triangle is clearly a third wheel and no real threat to the main couple’s relationship.
The Legend of Korra‘s love triangle doesn’t fall victim to that scenario since Mako displays confusion over his feelings for the two girls, Korra and Asami, but that leads to another problem. After pining for Mako, losing him to Asami, then ending up together by the end of Book 1, Book 2 opens with Korra and Mako as a couple. I like that the series tries to explore an established couple instead of leaving it at the misleading “happily ever after” point, but the relationship ended up feeling contrived to me. By the end of Book 2, the audience has once again been thrown into a whirlwind of make ups, break ups, broken hearts, and confusion. While I appreciate the attempt, things just happen too fast to make a real impact, although the end of the season suggests perhaps things will be more stable in coming Books.
Even with some aspects that didn’t work for me, overall The Legend of Korra: Book 2 was an enjoyable second entry in the series. It brings back a colorful cast of characters and story elements while mixing in new ones that add new charm and intrigue to the series. The finale of Book 2 leaves us with a bang and a lot of questions for the next Book so, check it out.
Gagging on Sexism 
It was a really good Book, even with its faults. I agree the AsaMaKorra was a pain but the rest was enjoyable. In my opinion they could handle Unalaq character better but Varrick and Zhu Li´s mere existence make up for that XD And I want more Eska and Desna.
In regards to female characters, both in ATLA and LOK they are excellent…as long as they are NOT mothers. I mean, even when is about family issues they are cast aside and are irrelevant to the general plot. The only exceptions are Ursa (though her portrayal in the comics is… debatable) and The Mother of The Faces (the only with an agenda outside the motherhood)
For last I really love your website. Bye!
I absolutely loved the finale of this book!! I cannot wait for the next book.
I thought you’re going to comment on Eska and Bolin’s relationship. On one hand someone acknowledged that women can be abusers in relationship, on another they played it largely for laughs and at the end Bolin apologizes to her and its implied that he meant it… Do you have any thoughts?
Thanks for bringing up this topic! This relationship is one that I want to look at more closely in the future since I was, as you can tell, more focused on the main love triangle. Sadly, it’s common for abusive relationships in which the female is the abuser to be played as comical. I find it troubling when fiction represents that kind of situation in such a way because, while it does acknowledge the existence of female abusers to a degree, it also diminishes the problem. After all, in making it comical, the audience is made to believe that the male character is never under any real threat of emotional or physical harm. Without having rewatched it, I would say that Bolin’s relationship with Eska seems to fall into that category. I’d love to write a full post on this issue sometime!
BTW its worth noting it wasnt just Eska. Korra bended desk into wall after argument with Mako and all Lin had to say was “You got off easy. You should have seen Air Temple Island when Tenzin broke up with me.” And they’re heroes!
And another thing: Many feminist tell me that a) solving women issues will help men (Why not the other way around then?) and b) that people accept abusive women because women are seen as weak. Well, Avatar as you pointed out is great at empowering women, and showing them as just as strong as men. And yet all these feministic writers thought it was good idea to make jokes about abusive relationships. A tiny reason why I might have some bias against feminists.