Korra fantasy seasons

[psocoptera]

emsariel posted about Korra and reminded me that I never finished and posted my fantasy Korra seasons 3 and 4, so, uh, I did that. Still don't have the through-line for season 4 quite right, and we'd need more filler episodes, but, um, to be honest I really love some of this, so here's my pitch.


Book 3 - Change

The theme of season 3 is Korra identifying her new purpose - what does it mean to be the Avatar, at this point.

Welcome To Republic City (Reprise)

Leftover from Season Two climax, vines are now overgrowing Republic City. We open on Korra, Mako, and Bolin struggling to remove them without bringing down the buildings around them, and somebody (Lin, the President) announcing that this isn't working and they're bringing in experts: Swampbenders. The Swampbenders are great with the vines, but they don't know the customs of the city (their misadventures recall Korra's own introduction to the city, camping in the parks, not carrying money, etc). They also have their own ideas about beautifying the city - taming and sculpting the vines instead of removing them. When Korra's team breaks open a particularly big vine cluster on the side of a building and finds a Swampbender family now living in it, everyone has to accept that the vines - and the Swampbenders - are here to stay, and try to compromise on a new vision of a greener Republic City.

Clash of the Titans

Varrick now has a controlling interest in Future Industries and wants to take it in a direction Asami disagrees with.

Meanwhile, off-duty Metalbender cops raise the Aang statue out of the harbor and animate it to face off against a giant Swampbender plant-construct in a massive pro-wrestling match. Tenzin feels that it's disrespectful to Aang and wants Korra to stop it, but Korra points out that Republic City had to watch Giant Her and Vaatu duke it out in the harbor and probably felt pretty helpless and they deserve to have some giant-fighting fun.

New Neighbors

Republic City has just started to get used to the Swampbenders when Jinora shows up with a party of Spirits looking to settle in the city. Bolin and Ginger try to befriend them but end up jealous of how much attention they receive. Korra wants to be helpful but doesn't have any idea what might be useful. Asami cuts a deal with the Spirits to be their manager/agent, essentially, and starts to use the money to buy out minor shareholders in Future Industries.

Insert Your Favorite Natural Disaster Here

Korra faces her first big bending challenge since the Season Two finale and discovers that without the past Avatar lives, her own knowledge of bending has some big gaps in it. She's able to save the children but the village gets wrecked.

The Challenge

Asami is still trying to reclaim control of her company from Varrick. Varrick is looking to promote his new hybrid airship-aircraft, and plans an unprecedented around-the-world journey. Asami challenges him to make it a race: if she wins, she gets his shares back, if he wins, she'll give him the shares she's managed to regain so far. Mako offers to go with her but for whatever reason doesn't.

Season Three Guest Star Episode

Katara contemplates going into the spirit world as Iroh did, but decides to remain in the cycle of life in hopes of rejoining Aang. Other old people have been "retiring to Florida" but are finding it's not all shuffleboard and tea. Korra has to go in and rescue some people. Someone unexpected from the original cast turns out to still be alive and decides to go help the retirees adjust - maybe Ty Lee. Asami leaves to start the race.

Shortcuts

Korra is frustrated with only having her own knowledge of bending to draw on. When a guru arrives in Republic City who claims they can teach any technique in just one day by subliminal messages, Korra gives it a try - only to be brainwashed into something bad! Meanwhile Mako struggles with being the youngest detective on the force, and those who feel like he jumped in without doing his time. Asami realizes she can change her flight plan to take better advantage of the wind.

Movers and Messages

Korra has shaken off the brainwashing, but she sees/hears something in one of Varrick's movers that makes her realize there are hidden messages in them. They confront Varrick over the radio but he keeps pretending there's static, or they get cut off - he's his usual weaselly self. But something he says compared with something Ginger says makes Bolin realize that Varrick has nothing to do with it: it's Zhu Li (and Ginger) putting in the messages, and they are the real power behind the moving-picture throne. They try to tell Varrick over the radio, but he does the static thing again and we see that he is brainwashed dun dun dun.

(Zhu Li is descended from one of the Joo Dees, who swore after the fall of the Dai Li to never let themselves be controlled or used by anyone again. She has been trained by her grandmother in all of the Dai Li's brainwashing techniques, and has been working with Ginger to brainwash Varrick for years.)

Amelia Earhart Reference

Asami's plane goes down and she's missing! Korra makes a deal with a Water Spirit who wants to temporarily merge with her that gets them out into the far ocean to look for her, but they can't find her.

The Cabbatar

With it becoming more generally known that spirits and people can merge, Hapless Cabbage Farmer, descended from a long line of cabbage farmer, merges with the Cabbage Spirit. Is the world ready for a Cabbage Avatar? Mako is really angry that people keep laughing about this when Asami is missing. Meanwhile, his attempt to investigate Zhu Li tips her off, and she and Ginger vanish.

Oh Cool, Polynesians

Asami has landed on a remote island where a "lost tribe" of uncontacted people lives who have never even heard of bending. She makes friends with [Polynesian name] and starts to work on a plan to signal her friends.

Oh Cool, Volcanoes/Oh Shit, Ethics

Asami does something implausible with a volcano that gets Korra's attention. When Korra and team make it the island, bending dramatically, some of the island people are amazed, some are horrified. [Polynesian name] realizes that she has the potential to be a bender and asks Korra to train her. Is it right for Korra to introduce bending to this non-bending society?

Season Three Cliffhanger

The spirit-merging shenanigans lead someone to figure out that *they can give bending powers to non-benders* - in other words, Korra no longer has a monopoly on this. Korra tries to convince them to stop and think (oh the irony) but declines to use force to stop them. Meanwhile, we see Zhu Li and Ginger amassing an army of Equalists.

Book Four - Time

(Korra is still flailing to figure out her responsibilities and what she brings to the table now that she isn't unique in being a spirit-human merger.)

Mostly Just Recap, Honestly

People getting new bending powers as adults is causing all sorts of mayhem in Republic City! Tenzin and Lin and Asami and Mako and Bolin all have wildly different ideas as to what to do about this.

At Least Someone Has A Plan

Korra decides to go to the library in the Spirit World in hopes of learning something about how to separate merged spirits. Jinora discovers that she is destined to become the new librarian someday (and that's how she knew how to find Rava in the Season Two finale). If she does it now, replacing the owl guy, she will have full access to all the information, but she doesn't feel ready to leave her family, so she and Korra come up with a wacky alternate plan to steal the book she needs.

We Need Something For Mako And Bolin To Be Doing Although They Are Increasingly Irrelevant To The Plot Arc

So they do it.

The One Most Like A Fanfic

When Ikki, jealous of Jinora's status as spirit expert, leads Meelo and Rohan into the spirit world, Tenzin, Bumi, and Kya go in to retrieve them. But goings-on at the Tree of Time lead to Ikki, Meelo, and Rohan coming back to the material world as adults - leading Tenzin, Bumi, and Kya who have reverted to childhood! Pema has to juggle the kid-adults and the adult-kids while Korra and Jinora return to the Tree of Time to find a solution to the mix-up.

Asami and the Polynesians and the Volcanoes

Invent space travel or something. Can you bend in space? Korra is frustrated that Asami is still "playing around with Future Industries" when there's the bender crisis going on.

Sides Are Chosen

The Army of Equalists emerges and prepares to face off against the Army of Benders. This is mostly just Zhu Li and Ginger running around being awesome, honestly.

Time Travel Multi-Parter

With the Army of Benders and the Army of Equalists both closing in on Republic City, Korra just wants everyone to STOP FIGHTING ALREADY, but strangely, beating people up from both sides doesn't seem to be convincing them to stop. She's still not over losing her past lives, and decides to use the Tree of Time to go back and ask some of them for advice. We get to tour several different time periods (yay costume and set design) and see some key historical moments.

In the second part, Korra realizes from something Tenzin showed her in a book before she left that she's Really There and thinks she could potentially change things. She feels overwhelmed - could she fight Sozin, stop the Airbender genocide? She decides she has to try, even if it means her family and friends in the present will never exist - but discovers that the Tree of Time won't let her change anything prior to her entering the Tree, and her attempt to do so instead flings her into the future.

In the *next* part, Korra enters two possible futures - one a world of technological marvels where bending has been lost, one an impoverished feudal dystopia where elite benders rule over miserable non-bending serfs. She uses the Tree to trace back each timeline, and discovers that the choice will be made on the battlefield in the present, but she doesn't manage to see exactly what it *is* before Mako and Bolin yank her out of the Tree because she was in a coma for days and they thought she was dying.

In the final part, Korra rejects the idea that there are only two possible futures, and somehow uses Asami's volcano rocketry in a bending-enhanced manner to do something craaaazy that makes everyone stop fighting. Show closes on a brief glimpse of Futuristic Space Benders in a city on the moon.

Comments

[cereph.livejournal.com]

Sounds good. I'd watch these seasons for sure.