First off, let me tell you a little about this short called "Duet" by Glen Keane - a Disney Legend.
I happened to watched it online before there was all this hype to it, fell in love with the simplicity of the chalk-like animation, slightly forgot about it... and then a week later, at the start of a very rough work week, it shows up on my phone as an 'interactive 3D animated short.' You have to hold your phone and move the phone to follow along with what the screen is showing you. 0_o The whole story was the same, but something about this second time made it feel less cheesy. More real. And heartwarming. I had tears in my eyes.
It's a tale as old as time in the span of 3 minutes: boy meets girl as babies, they grow up leading separate lives... but 'brush' each other in small, intricately special moments and you can tell they have a connection without a single bit of dialogue spoken. There's curiosity. There's affection. By the end of it, they're together, and the universe is as it should be. Whenever I have a rough moment at work, I think about this work of art, and it just gives me hope. Brilliant work. 10/10.
Another thing I almost forgot to mention was Legend of Korra Book 4: Balance. The Final Chapter.
Okay, I will say I had a couple gripes about this last season having a very lousy marketing campaign. It's like Nickelodeon higher-ups had too many new shows to worry about and they wanted to toss the last few bits of this franchise out for the fans to move on to bigger, sillier, more Nickelodeon-y-er things. And I get it. It's a business. You see that your target-age audience for your channel is not exactly the audience that's watching this show, and it's a bad investment. And that's exactly what's going on with Korra.
I look at the ratings when Korra first premiered in April 2012 with over 4.5 million viewers, and things seem to have gone downhill since then. Right near the end of Season 3 back in July 2014, with just over a million viewers watching per week, it didn't surprise me when there was an announcement that the remainder of the season would be shown online. And I was like, "fine, okay, I can deal with that." The ending happened, and poor Korra is left recovering from poisoned and incapable of being Avatar. Just before I even have the chance to get back into regular life, there's a a teaser trailer for Season 4, which premiered in October of this same year. And it would all be online. 0___0 Ratings didn't matter anymore. Nickelodeon just wanted this show out as quick as a cold.
In terms of quality, I will admit that Korra has had its weak points. Multiple villains, toying with original Avatar Spirit World mythology, Varrick.... (x____x)... but you know what? I kept watching it, and I love what Mike and Bryan have brought to this world in terms of visuals and action sequences and bringing a true girl protagonist to light with her strength and flaws. Book 4 shows Korra running away from her weakness by pretending to be strong, fighting underground rumbles and then getting some guidance from Toph to lose that weakness to focus on her Avatar abilities, and to not be afraid of failure. This season's villain is a dictator: Kuvira. Her motivation is different from the anti-bending revolutionary Amon, the spiritually corrupted Tonrak, and the anti-authority nonconformist Zaheer. What Kuvira wants is to make everyone part of the Earth Kingdom (no different than what Fire Lord Sozin wanted in Avatar) and she believes she can do it with exploiting spiritual energy. She's a tyrant, but she's very convincing about not being one.
This final chapter is supposed to bring closure to a lot of questions about how the modern world will function with an Avatar, with the Spirit portals open, and with all the potential corruption that society shall continue to bring... but really deep down I just want to know who fathered Toph's daughters. =) I don't think we'll get any of those answers, but whatever.
It's been almost 8 years since I first committed to this Avatar universe, so it's nostalgia that's kept me going, and an appreciation for the Avatar world and hoping that by the end of it everything gets a decent ending. Yeah, we know Aang and Katara made it, and their kids turned out alright (though I still don't get the purpose of Kya...) and maybe in a small distant universe Old Katara and Old Zuko might have a thing... but that's just my wishful thinking. Anyway, I'm upset that Mike and Bryan haven't gotten the appreciation they deserve from this show/universe, but I'm glad they're putting together a decent ending with Korra for the committed Avatar fans.
Only a few episodes left to go!
=)
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