Well if Tenzin isn't leaving, that makes things easier. That means Korra can work on her air bending as well as earth, which I think may be the tougher ones, compared to fire and water. 

I do think keeping the council but perhaps adding more non-benders maybe based on the city's districts would be good to have. The major was kind of an ass anyway and we don't really need to deal with the fallout from season two and three since we're not dealing with those issues anyway so I think that works in our favor.

Suyin should have been a disappointment but all they said is they patched things up and expected Lin to roll over the same way which isn't fair at all. I never saw Toph as a parent to begin with...if anything I would have considered her the adoptive type or just the rebel aunt figure type. I never thought she'd be touchy feely and it's even worse that she had two daughters, maybe a son would have been easier for her to care for...I dunno. Toph is stubborn, so is Lin, I never expected real progress there which was saddening. Toph did mention why Katara didn't join the fight though, she's old, everyone's fucking old at this point and can't be the old Team Avatar. It would have been nice for Katara to be more present in the lives of the air benders, we only briefly saw Zuko's daughter as the fire lord (who did she marry? I'd like to see the balls on the guy who had to had zuko as a father in law). 

I will say I was unhappy with the "flash back recap episode" because Mako's story owned up to his mistakes with Korra and Asami which I liked BUT he didn't mention how he hurt Bolin by coming onto Korra. He mentioned he turned her away but then the kiss happened and that was that. I will say it was nice to have them call Mako out on his BS but they didn't call him out enough...and then Korra's recap didn't have as much as I was hoping for either. And then with Bolin, stupid Varrik just adding a whole bunch of crap instead of letting Bolin voice how painful things have been with mistakes he made with Kuvia, being away from Mako and the others, never being accepted, having his BROTHER kiss the girl he thought he might be dating/into. It was a waste of an episode...I wish it just had the old cast summing things up like a parody or something...