Since the beginning I've had issues with the shorter season format of LoK compared to Avatar, and I feel that many of the problems I see with it are a result of that.
Firstly, there was no real overall arc it followed. There wasn't a big goal at the end of it all. For the original series, the goal was to defeat the Fire Lord and end the hundred-year-long war. For Korra, it just seemed to be to defeat the new villain that stepped into the vacuum left by the previous villain. And it was always resolved in about 13 episodes. The original series' arc had 61, with smaller sub-plots for each season. I think it gave more time to tell the story as well as develop many characters at once. Zuko had his own complex plot that spanned all three seasons. The Legend of Korra's plot just seemed kind of… sparse by comparison. Plus, this is supposed to be the finale, but nothing made it stand out more than any other season's end aside from Republic City's new crater. Another four more LoK seasons' worth of villains could easily crop up after this.
Second, it ended on romance. I want to be happy and excited about it, I really do. But for me the whole romance subplot was tainted almost from the start. They put the love triangle conflict five episodes into the first season. From that point on, I had no emotional investment in it. Once again referring back to the original series, they gave Aang and Katara 61 episodes from the time they met to the time their relationship actualizes. There were
hints all along the way, of course, and anyone who's ever watched any TV show ever should've been able to pick them out as the main couple the instant Aang opened his eyes. But it still took time. For LoK it started off rushed and for me it never really recovered from there. Even as Korra and Mako were talking, I was thinking "please don't end with this, please just let that part go". And they didn't end with it, and I was happy. But then Korra and Asami started talking and I started wondering. I know there have been people who shipped them since their bits of bonding time, but I couldn't immediately tell if the writers would actually be daring enough to take it in that direction. And obviously they did. My issue comes with the fact that it all happened in the final two minutes. Yeah they had time together in previous episodes and I guess it was teasing at something, but to me it sort of seemed like "oh btw they're together now". And then they go to the spirit world and that's the end of the franchise. I think the issue again comes from the seasons being shorter. Avatar already had seasons on the short end of the range, and these seasons were even shorter still. More breathing room in the episodes probably would've given more time for relationships to be explored. The format they went with meant that basically any sort of relationship had to be resolved by the 13th episode. It has me picturing them throwing darts at a "Relationships" board for each season. In the end, I would've preferred something like what Pacific Rim did, establishing that, yes, the characters care for each other, but leaving it open for interpretation.
I'm also a little disappointed that the spirits didn't really play a role in the finale. It seemed like the perfect setup for something like the end of Book 1 of the first series. Kuvira messes with the spirit world, even going so far as to hack up the giant tree in the swamp. But all the spirits were like "nope, your problem not ours" and did nothing. I was expecting Kuvira to get supremely messed up by some spirits, especially once she ran off into the vines, but it never happened. I do like the way she was defeated, but missed opportunities always bug me a bit.
There were some things I did enjoy, though.
Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding was cute, with Varrick finally wising up and Zhu Li telling it like it is. Always how she pictured their engagement, indeed.
Hiroshi's sacrifice seemed like a fitting end for his character. Even with the help he provided I doubt he could've ever redeemed himself in the eyes of everyone. He probably doubted it too. So he ensured that his final moments were dedicated to saving both his daughter and the city.
The Korra/Kuvira fight was pretty cool, too, with Kuvira turning the entire control room into a weapon against Korra, and Korra taking it and giving it right back.
So yeah. I enjoyed a lot of it, but I can't really see it as a proper end. And unfortunately that overshadows even the parts I liked.
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