Warning: Fullfrom The Legend of Korra: Book Three to follow.

With The Legend of Korra capping off its latest season last week, I think it's safe to say that Book Three was, in my opinion, the show's best season yet, delivering consistently great stories and developing its characters over the course of an expansive adventure. Book Three was also the best season for Korra, and featured some of her most Avatar-like moments: counseling others, making group decisions, and considering consequences before acting on impulse. At this point, I think the young Avatar has truly earned her "legendary" title.

"The natural order is disorder."

Additionally, Book Three introduced one of the most formidable and intimidating villains yet on the show: Zaheer.Throughout the series, Korra faced adversaries touting the belief that the world didn't need an Avatar anymore. That idea started with Amon, who believed in an egalitarian society, where benders and nonbenders could exist on an even playing field. Following that, Unalaq asserted that the Avatar could not exist without a counterpart to balance the dark and light. (Of course, Unalaq went a little overboard with the dark aspect in the end.) But here in Book Three, Zaheer may have opened up a bigger can of worms than he thought, leaving a mark on Korra's legacy that could be irreversible. (We'll know one way or the other come Book Four.) To me, that's part of what made Zaheer such a great villain -- he challenged Korra's status in a way that other adversaries (*cough*Amon*cough*) could only dream of doing.Zaheer also raised a very good point in "The Stakeout": no authority figure has ever done Korra any favors: President Raiko, Unalaq, the Earth Queen... (One exception might be the current Fire Lord, although we've yet to meet her for ourselves.) Going forward, we could even be entering a Cold War era of the Avatar universe, with more Red Lotus potentially popping up to take down the remaining government constructs. Add to that the ever-looming dark spirits that dwell in the shadows. (Koh the Face Stealer, anyone?)But as great as Zaheer was, I would have liked to get to know the other Red Lotus members a little better, particularly Ming-Hua and Ghazan, who were arguably more dynamic than the straight-laced Zaheer. Ghazan, for instance, had a fun rivalry with Bolin and a dark sense of humor, and I'm betting Ming-Hua had an awesome backstory to go with her armless waterbending.

IGN's The Legend of Korra: Book Three Finale Review

Group hug!

Unfortunately, their characters weren't nearly as fleshed out as, say, Mai or Ty Lee, both of whom assumed similar nefarious roles in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Granted, Mai and Ty Lee were mainstays for two whole seasons, while Ghazan and Ming-Hua met their respective ends after only a dozen episodes or so. Even P'Li was sidelined for most of Book Three, which is a shame considering her intriguing backstory hinted at in "Enter the Void" (although I'd trade that in a heartbeat for the combustive demise she got, thanks to Su). Nevertheless, these three, along with Zaheer, made an impressive team in combat, specifically in "In Harm's Way" and "The Terror Within."I was also kind of hoping for a flashback to the aforementioned conflict 13 years ago, which I believe would have fleshed out not just on the Red Lotus but also Tenzin, Zuko, Tonraq and Sokka. Still, the flashback we got was just as interesting, as we witnessed the Beifong family's spiraling descent. This of course was at the heart of Book Three's Zaofu arc, which brought some much needed context to the relationship between Lin and Suyin. Indeed, their reunion was among the strongest storylines this season, especially in terms of character development.Likewise, Mako and Bolin -- initially underutilized -- got their own moments to shine in Book Three. In addition to Mako's delightfully awkward persona around Asami and Korra, he also did some pretty snappy detective work in "The Terror Within." Later, Bolin unlocked the ability of lavabending, thus proving himself even more in the Team Avatar roster. Meanwhile, newcomer/airbender Kai fit right in with the group and developed a strong rapport with Jinora, whose own airbending mastery perfectly aligned with the airbender resurgence. That's not to mention "The Ultimatum," in which Tenzin showed Zaheer the true meaning of airbending.That said, I think my favorite character dynamic this season was between Asami and Korra. In retrospect, it's funny to think about how central the Asami/Mako/Korra love triangle was in Book One, only to find out it was the guy who was mucking up the equation. In truth, there's a disheartening lack of strong female characters in animated shows (especially action ones), so it's awesome to see The Legend of Korra feature not one but three female leads, including Asami and Jinora.

The Legend of Korra: Game Release Date Revealed

Really, the one character that kind of got the shaft in Book Three was Opal. While she obviously played a key role in getting Lin and Su to make amends, her airbending training -- both with Korra and at the Northern Air Temple -- never quite came into play. In fact, you might not have even noticed she was there at the Red Lotus' siege of the Northern Air Temple. Only in the finale did she get her first line after her departure from Zaofu, and even then it was in response to one of Bolin's weaker quips. (Side Note: I was also looking forward to Varrick showing up with his magnetic suit again in the finale. Alas, maybe next season.)I would also be remiss not to mention the fantastic production values this season. The storyboard artists and animators really outdid themselves for Book Three, creating some of the most -- scratch that -- the most visually stunning action sequences I've seen in American animated television. Even conversation scenes felt visceral and emotive, with characters effectively expressing themselves without even a word. Then there was Jeremy Zuckerman's ever amazing score, which only added to the overall impact. Top-notch work, all around.

Speaking to the general tone, Book Three was easily the darkest season yet, not just in terms of on-screen deaths but thematically as well. Book Three was so dark in fact that some fans have speculated that to be the reason for Korra's move from broadcast to digital. (Obviously there's no evidence to back that up, but it's a plausible theory.)

DreamWorks Teaming with Korra Animation Studio

I just... I can't.

That's not to say we haven't seen death on Korra before (Tarrlok's murder/suicide, Korra "destroying" Unavaatu, etc.). But in Book Three, killings were brought on by notably detached motives: self-defense, ideology, justification -- at least as they were happening. As a result, I think these deaths directly fed into Korra's PTSD-like state following the defeat of Zaheer. She was essentially broken, not just physically but emotionally too. Personally, I think it was a bold move on the part of the creators to end Book Three on such a bittersweet note. To call it an "Empire Strikes Back" ending wouldn't do the last scene justice, since it didn't have the same hopeful resolve that Empire did. On the contrary, I think the optimistic backdrop of Jinora's tattoo ceremony only punctuated Korra's despair (albeit in a tragically beautiful way).The image also brings to mind Avatar Aang's parting words to Korra in the Book One finale: "When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change." Without question, this was Korra's lowest point, which I predict will be the forerunner to her greatest change -- that is, challenging the notion of "What is the Avatar?" once and for all. In that sense, I think Zaheer was right: change cannot be stopped -- and actually, I think it's only just beginning.