“Beyond the Wilds” marks a return to the main plot of Book 4: Balance after last week’s tangential clip show. Korra continues to work through her traumatic past with Zaheer. Meanwhile, the spirit vines in Republic City react violently to Kuvira’s assault on the swamp and the banyan grove tree.

J and I begin our conversation speculating whether this episode crammed in too many or too few story points. From there, we look at the whole season and I posit that Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have transitioned the series from plot-centric to character-centric to more closely match the previous series.

I then question the rushed, minimalist confrontation between Korra and Zaheer. We subsequently address yet more differences between Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Finally, we dive in to the announced titles for the last few episodes and predict what might happen in the finale.

Giant robot fight, anyone?

~ Søren

Note that this podcast contains spoilers up through “Beyond the Wilds.” As always, you can subscribe to Ember Island Airwaves using iTunes. Alternatively, you can check out the episode online or download it here. Happy listening!

Here’s that Kuvira/Korra duel from “Enemy at the Gates.” We also mentioned Gene Luen Yang’s tweet about the follow-up comic to “The Rift,” entitled “Smoke and Shadow”:

.@SorenHough @duytano Answer to your question about future Avatar comics: http://t.co/pjTLAaswET

— Gene Luen Yang (@geneluenyang) December 1, 2014

What do you think – is Raava the “midichlorians” of the Avatar world? Has this season worked for you so far (despite the studio-induced interruptions)? And where the heck is Kai?

Stay tuned for our coverage of next week’s episode, “Operation Beifong.”

This podcast uses clips from the songs Nanyang Journey and Erhu by Ivan Chew / CC BY 3.0.