They were fantastic episodes, quick question though was the spirit that named wan stinky the same spirit that told Aang to go away when he ventured into the spirit world, and was attacked by panda when he was rude to Aang? It's a nice touch if so.
Though I do fear we are back to Korra now, these episodes further highlighted that she's not the best protagonist and neither are her supplementary characters (except Tenzin).
@ insomniac the lion turtle told Aang that in the era before bending the elements humans bent the energy within themselves, which we never saw here, so I personally consider the energy bending cheap in both seasons.
Though I do agree with the principle of energy bending existing. I just had a thought though we were told on several occasions that humans learnt bending from other sources namely the moon, dragons, sky bison and badger moles. We can either consider this a retcon or a genuine expansion of this universes intrinsic lore.