Just when I've started to recover from the awesome and heartbreaking Book 3 finale, Legend of Korra creators Bryan Konietzko and Mike DiMartino made a surprise announcement that Book 4 would be released sooner than anyone anticipated. It's so soon that it's given me emotional whiplash!
Just a few days ago, the official title of the book was announced. Book 4 will be officially titled 'Balance', and will be released on...October 3rd! That's only 3 weeks from now!!! The announcement was made in a short video on Nickelodeon.com.
Start preparing your mind, body, and soul for #LegendOfKorra Book 4 pic.twitter.com/KaK5KTmFlv
— Nickelodeon (@NickelodeonTV) September 6, 2014
This is so exciting, considering how amazing Book 3 was! It was definitely the best Book from the Korra series, and in my opinion it rivals Book 2: Earth from the original series Avatar: The Last Aribender as the best book in the Avatar franchise.So just to recap Book 3 real quick...
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! If you haven't seen Book 3 yet, you can watch all of the episodes for free on Nickelodeon.com! Please watch them first...trust me, you don't want to spoil anything for yourself!
The end of Book 2: Spirits left Korra completely severed from her past Avatar lives, so she is continuing forward alone in a way, without any guidance from the previous Avatars. She also left open the portals to the Spirit world, declaring that humans and spirits needed to learn to get along with each other and that she would no longer be the bridge between the two worlds. As a result of leaving the portals open, new airbenders began popping up all over the world. Korra decides that her new path is to rebuild the Air Nation, so she sets out with her friends Bolin, Mako, and Asami as well as her mentor Tenzin, his daughter Jinora, and his brother Bumi (who has become one of the new airbenders) to travel the world and bring the new airbenders to the Northern Air Temple.
Naturally, things don't go quite according to plan. They run into trouble convincing new airbenders to leave their lives to start anew as students of airbending and the Earth Queen and Korra butt heads over the Queen drafting airbending citizens against their will into the Earth Kingdom army. Worst of all, one of the new airbenders, a very dangrous criminal named Zaheer, is hellbent on catching the Avatar and bringing down world leaders. From there on out, it's one problem for our heroes after another as they train the new airbenders and while dodging the Earth Queen's soldiers and battling the Red Lotus, a group of anarchists led by Zaheer.
They eventually catch up with Korra, who bravely surrenders herself to them in exchange for the release of the airbenders. After some very tense, exciting battles, Korra triumphs with help from her family and friends, but she doesn't come out unscathed. The fight with Zaheer has broken her both spiritually and physically. But the show didn't end on a completely sombre note...Jinora was finally named and airbending master and received her traditionally airbender tattoos. Tenzin also announced that the new Air nation would return to it's nomadic roots and travel the world helping people and fighting corruption while Korra recovers.
So what can we expect from Book 4: Balance?
Most importantly, Korra's recovery from her brush with death. The villains she encountered in previous books had tried to kill her, but this last battle with Zaheer was the worst, and came the closest to ending her life and the Avatar reincarnation cycle. "I seem to make enemies wherever I go." she laments to Tenzin at one point during the season.
It's strange, but after all this time, I finally really understand Korra. I don't know why on earth it took me so long because it seems so obvious now. Unlike Aang, Korra wants to be the Avatar. Her whole life has revolved around the time when she would step up and truly become Aang's successor. It's all her life has been about, and without it, she fears she is nothing. From the time she left the Southern Water Tribe in Book 1, she has been confronted with villains who tell her that the Avatar is outdated and isn't needed anymore. It's her greatest fear, and she feels like it's become a reality by the time Book 3 ends. At the end of Jinora's airbending ceremony, Tenzin's announcement that the new Air Nation would take up her duties during her recovery leaves her feeling completely useless. It'll be interesting to see how she comes to grips with this and whether or not she'll be able to get past her fear that the world won't need her.
Just like the original Avatar series, Korra first spent time in the Water Tribes, then traveled to the Earth Kingdom, so I don't think it's illogical to presume that we'll be seeing a lot of the Fire Nation in Book 4. After all, we were reunited with Zuko this season, and at one point he returned to his home country to protect the current Firelord, his daughter. There's no way the creators can mention something like that without following up on it!
Speaking of seeing familiar faces, we did learn this season that Toph is still alive, traveling the world and finding balance within herself. It would be really fantastic to see her again. Actually, it would be really fantastic if there was a reunion of sorts between Katara, Zuko, and Toph, the only remaining individuals of the original Team Avatar.
There's been a lot of speculation about the villain for the next book...at the end of Book 3, Korra's father Tonraq was thrown off a cliff by Zaheer. Korra thought he was dead, but it turns out he had been saved by one of the metal bending soldiers. As she bandaged up his wound, he thanked her for saving him. At this point, we get a close up of her face and she says "You can call me Kuvira." as some ominous music plays in the background. There's absolutely no way this is a random moment or a throwaway line. I definitely think Kuvira is being set up as a villain, though her reasons for doing so are completely unknown at this point. During the entire season, she's been playing the part of the good metal bending soldier.
In fact, a lot of the speculation has been about the fact that she could be the daughter of Zaheer and Suyin, Lin Beifong's metal bending half sister. This all comes from a screencap that shows a picture of a young Suyin with a man who certainly looks like Zaheer.
Kuvira definitely looks like she could be their daughter, but we'll have to wait and see. I don't think it's much of a stretch to assume she's Zaheer's daughter, but Suyin being her mother might be taking it a bit too far. Going this route could easily turn into something like a bad soap opera (actually, all soaps are bad) or bad fan fiction. However, I do trust the creators. The villains for Book 3 were all fantastic, so I have no doubt that the villains for Book 4 will be just as great, whether Kuvira is one of them or not. I kind of hope she is, since Avatar hasn't had a real threatening lady villain since Azula.
And last but not least...Korra has a new look! There's some small changes to her wardrobe (longer arm sleeves, a new belt), but the most dramatic is the new hair, cut to shoulder length. I loved her more traditional water tribe adornments that she's worn in the previous seasons, but I think the shorter hair really suits her. She looks very mature, which is appropriate since she has matured greatly since we first met her.
The release of new episodes for Book 4 will follow the same schedule as Book 3...a new episode every Friday on the Nickelodeon website. Episodes will be released digitally only, as it was announced earlier this summer that Korra would be leaving television and moving to online release for the remainder of the series.
So now it's a waiting game for the Book 4 trailer...it's got a lot to live up to considering how incredible the trailer for Book 3 was. I suspect the new trailer will leave me geeking out like crazy and drowning in my tears. That's the only regrettable thing about Book 4 coming sooner than expected...the Legend of Korra series, and most likely the Avatar franchise as a whole, is that much closer to ending.
So is everyone else as excited as I am for Book 4? Shout it out below!
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