Nerdophiles Catch Up With… The Legend of Korra

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCEFMY4TWGw]

So this Friday, October 3rd will be the final season premiere of The Legend of Korra! Sequel to the hit show Avatar: The Last Airbender, Korra has seen a much more mature form of story telling, and this season seems to promise to be the darkest and perhaps the most enlightened season to date. In the middle of Book 3, Nickelodeon surprised everyone by uploading episodes 9-13 in rapid succession within the span of a few weeks. Announcing that they planned to take the show off of the air shocked fans around the world, but showrunner Bryan Koneitzko was quick to reassure their fans that the show was going digital.

So before the first episode of Book 4 appears this Friday on the Nick.com site, here are some things that you should be caught up on…

• Harmonic Convergence has left the world attempting to balance out the spiritual inequality. This means spirits everywhere, and new air benders! They are a result of harmonic convergence.
• Korra and the gang go forward and find these air benders in an attempt to rebuild the air nation and heal the wrongs that were set in place by the Fire Nation. Among the new benders in the world include Bumi (Tenzin’s brother), Kai (a street smart thief from the streets, and a potential romance for Jinora), and Zaheer (the villain of Book 3).

• Zaheer is a martial arts master and a political prisoner of 13 years as a member of the Red Lotus, kept by the White Lotus. After gaining air bending, he breaks out of prison and releases his three cohorts: Ghazan (earth/lava bender), Ming-Hua (armless waterbender), and P’Li (fire/combustion bender).
• They want to basically to reunite Raava and Vaatu so that the world can be in balance; they opt for extreme anarchy basically.
• Korra is banned from Republic City, because harmonic convergence left the city covered in vines as the earth attempts to retake the land.
• The Earth Queen is insane, and basically wants to capture all of the new air benders and make them into her own personal army. Eventually they are freed from the crazy Queen’s grasp with the help of Korra and Jinora.

• At this point Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Asami split ways with Tenzin and the other airbenders who travel to the Northern Air Temple for their new bending training.
• We meet Suyin Beifong, Lin’s sister. They have had a strained relationship due to Suyin basically being the one who indadvertedly scarred Lin and lead Toph to quit her job as police chief. Suyin has a big family and her daughter Opal is an airbender.
• Suyin also leads a large metal city named Zhaofu, and during their time in Zhaofu Korra learns metal bending. Bolin tries, but can’t seem to grasp it, although he manages to start a romance with Opal.

• There are baby Sky Bison, they are adorable.
• We get to see Zuko again, and yes he rides a dragon as transport.
• Zaheer kills the Earth Queen by asphyxiation, not sure if this was a great loss. However following this assassination, Ba Sing Se breaks out into chaos.
• Red Lotus abducts all of the new airbenders, and basically beat Tenzin to a pulp, telling Korra to trade herself in for the benders. Despite Tenzin’s valiant effort, he is taken.
• Korra and the group plan a method of attack trying to trick Red Lotus. It kind of goes to plan. In the process, Bolin learns to lava bend and three of the four Red Lotus members die, Zaheer remains and with the death of P’Li, his lover, he is able to be truly removed from the world and can “enter the void” aka fly. Yes, FLY. No staff, no nothing. Just float around like Superman.
• Korra gets poisoned after being taken by Red Lotus, and must battle her final fight with Zaheer on the brink of death. The poison is to bring out her avatar state, her most vulnerable form which will make her easy to kill.

• He and Korra fight an enormous battle, and at one point Zaheer is close to asphyxiating her like he did the Earth Queen. But Jinora saves the day, leading the other airbenders into creating a massive vortex that throws Zaheer off balance and into jail.
• Two weeks after this, we witness Jinora receive her air bending master tattoos. Korra is wheelchair bound, significantly weaker than when we last saw her. The mend has been painful.

Oh Korra, the emotions run so deep. We’ve already seen in the sneak peek trailer that despite the massive three year jump forward, Korra is definitely not at 100% yet. She is still haunted by the memories of her escape from death. The final Book will also finally give us a glimpse at a fan favorite from the original series, Toph! I have no idea what they’re bringing on this season, but I can guess that the Earth Kingdom will play a large role in it, probably having to do with the anarchy set on by Zaheer. Again, remember that Book 4: Change will be posted on the official Nickelodeon site for all to view! Let’s enjoy this final ride!