Legend of Korra Comes to a Close

On Friday night, Avatar: The Legend of Korra released as usual at 8:00pm, but what fans didn't expect was a challenge from the makers of ALOK that, if won, would allow for the release of the season finale a week early! At 1:00pm on Friday, KorraNation and Bryan Konietzko (co-creator of ATLA and ATLOK) posted on their Tumblr pages a video of Janet Varney (voice actress for Korra in the show) giving the fans of ATLOK a challenge: If the post of that video would get reblogged 10,000 times before Saturday began, they would release the season finale of ALOK on Friday night at Midnight. The Avatar fandom made quick work of this challenge, and by now the post had been reblogged over 22,000 times. The season finale aired early on Friday (sometime even earlier than the promised midnight release), and the Book 2 Avatar mini-series came to an epic close.

The greatest part of the season finale was its massive scope. To provide the Avatar, master of all four elements and embodied by Raava, the spirit of all light and good in the world, with a viable challenge, this finale had t be something of epic proportions, and it surely was. *Spoiler Alert* Although it seemed almost too much like a typical over-escalating anime, Unalaq's transformation into a massive dark spirit giant gave the finale a gravity that had never been seen before in the Avatar universe. Korra was forced to step up then, and become equally as giant as she embraced the cosmic energy in her spirit, which gave a shout out to the ATLA fans, using the same scene from ATLA season 2 and season 3 finales when Aang tries to embrace his own cosmic energy. And that wasn't the only shout-out to long-time ATLA fans. Commander Zhao from season 1 of ATLA was found in the "Fog of Lost Souls" that Uncle Iroh helped them find. Within that fog, Tenzin breaks down, feeling the pressure of his father's legacy on his shoulders, and elderly Aang appears int he show for the first time.

A couple of the strange things in this episode were that Korra was left to use her cosmic energy to battle Evil Unalaq even though her Raava spirit was gone, meaning anyone could have joined her or battled in her stead. Also, Raava declares in Beginnings part 2 that Wan and she are "bonded forever," but then Vaatu simply rips Raava right out of Korra's body. At the end, Raava would have had the option to chose anyone as her new host, meaning anyone could have been the new Avatar, especially since Korra lost the connection to all her past Avatar lives in the battle, but she links with Korra again as if it were her only choice. Personally, i would have chosen Jinora.

Despite Korra's unshakable resolve to defeat Unalaq, she would have been defeated if it wasn't for Aang's adolescent granddaughter, Jinora. Jinora has become one of my favorite characters of all time because she reminds me most of Aang from the original ATLA series. She is kind, wise, humble, and spiritual. And in this episode, she literally brings light back into the world so that Raava can manifest once again. I'm not quite sure how she does this, but we can be sure that her essence and spirituality basically resurrected the spirit of light, making Jinora one of the most spiritually mature and pure characters in the Avatar universe.

As season 2 comes to a close, the fandom is already plaguing the creators with news about season 3. We know this much so far:
-It will have a focus on Earth
-Lin will have a more prominent role
-There is an Earth Queen
-It will be released "much" quicker than Book 2 was released after Korra's first season.