K212 Harmonic Convergence [caption id="attachment_8317" align="aligncenter" width="600"]

Look at those expressions, for other characters you would not think much, but for these two, HUGE.[/caption] Written By - Tim Hedrick Directed By - Ian Graham Animated By - Studio Mir In many ways this was the real start to the finale, nothing against K211, that was a great episode itself, it just felt a step away from the finale. This episode, though, really felt like the beginning of things getting epic. Like the previous episode it surprised me with how good it was, mainly that Harmonic Convergence only happened right at the end and we got a lot of time to build up to it, it really allowed for a lot of character moments to happen before things got crazy. Character moments like the return of Katara, Bumi getting his moment and Eska and Desna beginning to become conflicted over what their father is doing. It was moments like these that made this episode so good, not to say the amazing action scenes were not amazing, just that I did not expect this episode to be so character focused. Even though Tenzin gets his big moments in the next 2 episodes, we see a big change in his character with his eagerness to get his daughter back. He is usually the one telling others to calm down and think more, yet here is is the one advocating the straight on aggressive attacks. Kya even points this out to make it clear that this is not like Tenzin at all. It makes sense, he feels responsible for Jinora having to go into the spirit world because he could not and now he needs to save her. As I said the big moments happen in the next two episodes, but I enjoyed the consistency here. Speaking of Jinora, we get explained why there is a time limit on finding Jinora. Her body still needs to be kept functioning, with Aang in the previous series he was never away from it for too long and so it never came up, but it makes complete sense that with Jinora being away for a week her body would be in danger of dying. It was a great way to give us more detail on what happens when someone enters the spirit world while also creating a lot of drama around such a young character that has really endeared herself to the fandom this Book. Through this we also got the return of Katara, even though Kya is a great healer, she admits that Katara is the only one who can keep her body going now. Showing why she is the best healer in the world. Eska and Desna have been characters that while always interesting have not had the focus they have perhaps deserved. I definitely went into the finale considering them underdeveloped characters, I can safely say now that I was satisfied with how they were handled in the finale. This episode does a great job at showing that although the two are loyal to their father and consider him the wisest person in the world, they are beginning to doubt his plans. They really do go through an almost Zuko-esque journey over these last 3 episodes going back and forth on what to do. Here we see them initially just wanting to go home thinking that with the southern rebels defeated they have nothing else to do, they grow concerned at Unalaq's cryptic answer of wanting to change the world into something better and then even more so when he announces that he will merge with Vaatu at Harmonic Convergence. I loved that it was s low set up, there was no instant turn, they were really thinking things through and were very unsure. Especially after Tonraq and Korra's pleas. Especially Korra who knows that if the two merge that Unalaq will not be their father any more, she knows they respect him more than anyone, so she uses that to get them to help her to save him. It was a nice moment for Korra, showing that she really does understand why the twins are supporting Unalaq, but that by freeing her they will be helping their father. Desna's outburst, showed this respect, but also their confidence in him dwindling. Nice set up. Asami got her big moment in this episode when she was the one to come up with the plan to get everyone through the portal. Given that she does not do much else, it was nice to see her get this pretty big moment where her plan gives the small team a chance to succeed. Her big skill of being an expert pilot was again utilised to good effect, they really did a good job at showing that Asami was doing a lot of work flying the plane and keeping Mako and Bolin safe. She also showed herself to be a team player when with no arguments agreed to take Tonraq back to Senna on Oogi, she seemed a bit mad at Korra over the Mako stuff from last episode so to see her focus on the mission was great. Unalaq also got some important moments in this episode. Not only in explaining his plan about merging with Vaatu, but his reasoning behind why he is doing everything he is doing. He disagreed with what Wan did 10,000 years ago separating humans and spirits and now wants to change that by bringing darkness to the world. His problem is that he seems so caught up in the idea that he has lost a lot of his humanity, he really seems to be thinking like a spirit and not caring about any humans including his children. If Vaatu wins it will result in all of humanity being at risk, yet Unalaq only sees the power and the spirit point of view. It was an interesting twist that I did not expect, I expected Vaatu to have promised Unalaq something, something that Unalaq's humanity led him to agree to, but instead Unalaq is explained to basically wish that he was a spirit and not really care about humans any more. I love this decision, because what makes the Avatar so powerful is that it is the perfect combination of a human and a spirit, the emotions and inner spirit of a human, things that spirits often look down on humans for, with the power and authority of a spirit. More than that Wan and Raava really thought each other a lot, the key is that the Avatar can see both sides of the spirit and human conflict. Tonraq's plea to his brother really played on this, he says that Unalaq is a man, his brother and that he has children, his attempt to remind his brother of his humanity. The twist clearly had an effect on Tonraq as he now realises that his brother while evil, has lost himself in his devotion to the spirits. Bumi gets a lot of screen time in this episode and it works perfectly for him. The main set up is that he again uses his crazy stories to try and help out, but everyone thinks it is not the time for those stories and no one believes him, then he is left as the only one not captured and basically through a crazy series of events is left with an amazing story to tell everyone, but this time he does not as they would not believe him, the key is that with this one we saw it happen and now kind of believe all of his stories. It was a clever use of that character trait of Bumi to give him a story that was at the same time humourous, but also his big moment of proving himself in the book. It was oddly fitting that he saved the day using a flute, a grappling hook and an ejector seat as opposed to a feather, 2 eggs and a barrel of molasses. Great scene of him annihilating the camp of soldiers mostly by accident. Speaking of actions scenes this episode really turned up the dial on the action. We got some fantastic aerial action with Asami, Mako and Bolin bombing on the plan and some dark spirit stuff with them attacking Oogi. I fully expected the plan to succeed, so to see this epic plan fail and in such a dramatic way with everyone left unconscious in the snow, that was intense. Once everyone is freed we really get Korra stepping up big time, everyone is listening to her and is ready to follow her lead. Most importantly her father, this was a big early plot point this book, her father making decisions for her, so to see him not argue and just agree when she orders him to get to a healer was a perfect cap on that issue. She does not pull any punches with her speech before they enter the portal, she wants them all to know what is at stake, again great intensity from the whole group. The big shock for me with the plan that had me worried was that Mako and Bolin were to hold off Unalaq until she could close the portal, I really thought they were getting badly injured here. As I said before the action in this episode was wonderful, and the start of the spirit world battle was very good. Mako and Bolin manage to fight evenly with Unalaq after Korra clears the dark spirits out of the way. The ending to the episode is unbelievably dramatic, we knew it was coming, but the way they showed Vaatu being freed was chilling, this is the most powerful spirit Korra could possibly face now face to face with her. The pulse of red energy as he was freed followed by that glorious laugh from Vaatu, that I am sure he spent 10,000 years perfecting, was perfect. This episode does such a good job at leaving things prepared perfectly for the final 2 episodes. It gave some of the underdeveloped characters, time to shine (Asami, Bumi, Eska and Desna) and also gave us a lot of lovely action on a level that we have only see from "Beginnings" this Book. The title is fitting, everything really does converge together by the end of this episode.

The Pro-Bending Arena, In All Its Glory