The Legend of Korra: "Light in the Dark" English Review

If you hadn't already heard the news, The Legend of Korra's two-part finale for Book Two was released a whole week early! Both episodes are now available to watch at  >>HERE <<

If you want to stick it out, though, Nickelodeon will also be airing the finale at Korra's regularly scheduled time next week on Friday, November 22 at 8/7c.

After losing the fight with Unalaq, things were looking pretty grim for Korra and the rest of Team Avatar. But they were looking even grimmer for Republic City, which was under attack by the giant Dark Avatar.
Right from the get-go, there were a few side-moments worth noting. First, there was Lin saving President Raiko, like a boss. She's been absent from most of Book Two, but she's still got it where it counts. Also, Varrick made his daring escape from prison with Zhu Li. ("DO THE THING!") And, of course, there was a nice cameo from General Iroh, whose ships blasted the Dark Avatar with hellfire, but to no avail -- kind of an homage to the old Godzilla films, it seemed. Basically... the home team was in dire straights.

Unalaq-turned-Vaatu.

Korra wasn't faring much better, but luckily Tenzin was there to drop some knowledge. We'd heard casual references to the Tree of Time -- specifically in the library, when Jinora was reading about Harmonic Convergence -- but it was in this episode that we learned exactly what it was. For it's part, I thought the Tree of Time was a pretty effective plot device.

Here, Tenzin was able to fulfill his role as Korra's guide while Korra was able to recover her lost memories and discover an untapped facet of energybending. In what has to be the craziest move in Avatar history, Korra was able to sync up with her Avatar Spirit (similar to the one Aang encountered when he unlocked his Chakras) and summon it into the mortal realm. As Bumi remarked to Tenzin after the 50-Foot Korra zapped out of the Spirit World, "Uh, what did you say to her exactly?"

The result, of course, was a large-scale "kaiju" fight between the Avatar Spirit and the Dark Avatar -- the aforementioned "bananas" I was referring to earlier. While this scene was indeed sheer, utter ridiculousness, it was also just kind of... well, awesome. Certainly not the final showdown we were probably all expecting, but definitely high-stakes.

 here wasn't that same sense of danger or humanity to it -- Korra wasn't really there, not physically anyway; she was piloting a giant spirit mecha, basically. Don't get me wrong, though, from a visual perspective, it was great -- and again, wonderfully scored. All things considered, I was into it, rolling with it -- until...

AWESO-- wait, what?

Okay, I have to talk about the Jinora thing, because this can be looked at in a few different ways. On the one hand, yes, throughout Book Two we've gotten the sense that Jinora is immensely in tune with the spirits and harbors a strong connection to them. Don't let it be said that her spiritual prowess lacks any aptitude. The thing is, I'm still wracking my brain as to what exactly happened at all. Near the end of "Darkness Falls," we saw Jinora disappear to an unknown location, where she did... something. Then, in this episode, she came back holding an orb of light -- the remnants of Raava -- that then suddenly appeared in the Dark Avatar's chest for Korra to grab. Now, that scene could have been explained -- even a simple line might have sufficed -- but the fact that no one addressed it makes this a bit of a deus ex machina.
Some fans might compare it to Avatar Aang showing up at the end of Book One, but the difference here is that the creators knew they were coming back for Books Three and Book Four. With that in mind, I'm willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt, and I hope that they address it later. But left the way it is, it really doesn't make that much sense.

Ready player two...

That minor gripe aside, though, there was a ton of other great stuff in the final moments of "Light in the Dark." Korra and Mako breaking up, for example, felt like the natural thing to do, and I look forward to seeing where that leads in the future. (Maybe now Mako and Bolin will commiserate together over their lost loves.) Korra's decision to keep the portals open was also a huge game-changer, but that too seemed in keeping with this overall theme of harmony and autonomy within the Avatar world.

Speaking of which, I know some might disagree, but I do hope the creators stick with the fact that Korra has lost all communication with her past lives. Seeing that this is the dawn of a new age, I think it's only appropriate that that applied to the Avatar as well -- a reboot of the Avatar cycle, if you will. Much like Avatar Wan established order in his own time, now Korra can build her own path towards uniting spirits and humans, instead of segregating them. No longer will the Avatar be the bridge between two worlds, but rather the bridge between two peoples.

The Verdict

Despite some questions that still need answering, The Legend of Korra: Book Two finale delivered a radical and gripping half-hour of television that not only concluded the season's overarching narrative, but opened up the Avatar world to new and exciting possibilities for future stories.

source : http://www.ign.com