Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra

I remember back almost a decade ago when Avatar the Last Airbender first started airing and I started watching it, I was genuinely surprised at how good it was. Very entertaining with a great blend of comedy action and tense moments. I was going to follow it all the way through to the end, but being the impatient person that I am, I couldn't bring myself to watch one episode per week, so I eventually stopped watching with the idea that I would watch the entire series once it was finished.

The other day I was walking around in a local shop and noticed the Legend of Korra had come out on Bluray. I was so excited to see it that I went home and marathoned through all 61 episodes of Avatar... and man... that show is fucking fantastic. I honestly can't believe it's a show that is produced by Nickelodeon. I mean, I generally associate Nickelodeon with shows aimed at a younger audience, ala Sponge Bob. Avatar dealt with some pretty heavy stuff though. So I plowed through Avatar and coming off the high of that great show dove straight into Korra. And holy shit, Korra did not disappoint either. That show may just be the highest quality animated TV show that I've ever seen. The animation every episode is on par with most full length animated movies with a beautiful blend of CG and traditional animation.

Like The Last Airbender before it, Korra also deals with a lot of heavy subject matter like class divides, racism, terrorism, suicide, and stuff I generally didn't expect you would be able to tackle in a show produced by Nickelodeon. It's honestly my second favorite animated series I've ever seen and urge anyone who hasn't seen it to give it a shot.

On a side note, oh my god was the Last Airbender movie a piece of garbage. They took all best elements of the show and threw them away and then thoroughly miscast it. It was an insult to the show it came from, and I'm usually pretty open to movie adaptions. Also season 2, Studio Pierrot is helping with the animated series, and I hope they don't fuck up the animation. The Korean company that works on the animation on Avatar and Korra are great, with tons of little nuances. Hopefully Studio Pierrot can keep up that quality.

Anyways, are there any other Avatar/Korra fans out there and is anyone excited for season 2 of Korra coming out in September?

Avatar was a pretty good series, but the pacing was always a bit of a drag. Legend of Korra, on the other hand, was a triumphant experience from beginning to end. It was like being a little kid again, I couldn't wait for Saturday morning to come back around. I can't wait for season 2.

@dallas_raines: I feel like Korra has the luxury of not having to explain the world now that Avatar has established everything.

I loved the first Avatar. The second series had a lot of promise, but I felt like they kinda screwed the pooch with a lot of their characters... specifically Mako, which is doubly disappointing since he's named in honor of an awesome man and voice actor who unfortunately passed on during the first series. Hopefully book 2 of Korra will be better.

Really? I thought everyone was pretty well done. Korra was different, not for difference sake, but just by nature of being born in the water tribe, rather then being an air nomad. The only thing I couldn't decide whether I liked or not was that Korra was with Mako rather then Bolin, and I also felt bad for Asame. But I doubt that stuff will just be left hanging as the series progresses.

I thought Korra was straight up bad. Amon started out as a genuinely compelling antagonist, but was turned into a generic bad guy you'd find in almost any other work of fiction. Korra herself started off kinda bitchy...and continued to be kinda bitchy throughout the entire season. There was literally zero growth in her character until they decided to make her cry and activate the win button at the end. The whole love triangle thing was kinda shitty because it was always obviously what's-her-face was going to get the short end of the stick. That, in particular, only helped cement Korra's (the character) absolutely shittiness as she straight up inserts herself into someone else's relationship because of her own shelfishness and complete disregard of other people's feelings. Also, she kinda personifies everything Amon stood for, but the show never really goes too far down that road. Lastly, I kinda already touched on it, but the ending came way too fast and wrapped up way too nicely. Essentially every conflict/issue/problem is resolved within literally a few minutes.

tl:dr: I kinda hated the whole thing. I mean, aside from the action of some funny moments, the show had virtually no redeemable qualities. I'm gonna watch season 2 and hope for the best though.

huge fan here. im excited for the next book but i dont think they will ever top the original series. and the movie...god why did that happen?

i like the whole korra story and art but it just doesnt grab me or resonate like the original did. the character aren't nearly as strong. who knows it could all turn around this season.

Last Airbender >>>>> Korra. This opinion is based on aesthetics, plot, music, characters (like @billymagnum and @babychoochoo mentioned), etc.

Maybe season 2 can redeem it a bit.

Airbender was awesome and probably my favourite animated show. Korra was very disappointing.

I enjoy Last Avatar, the latest series is so-so but I keep on watching in order to see what happened to the original core of characters. For those who are fans and want more information of what happened between the new series and old series I definitely recommend picking up the comic books. Not only are they canonical but they are also written by the original creators, they are pretty good for Last Airbender fans.

I disagree with you completely. Firstly, this is only the first season of a projected four. Obviously she wouldn't be completley different by the end of this season, just like how Aang was not that different after Book One. Second, Korra already had feelings for Mako, before Asame was even introduced. And she didn't really butt in, but rather, Mako eventually admitted he loved her back. I mean Korra kissed and revealed her feelings to Mako before Asame was even a thing.

Second, her character does change a decent amount. She's able to tap into the Avatar state and communicate with Aang by the end of the show, which indicates that she is becoming more spiritual. Coincidentally, Book Two is called Spirits. As for Amon, he really ended up just being a psychopath, using his false preaching to push forward his own greedy agenda of wanting to be more powerful then the Avatar. Amon's character was one of fear. He tried to replicate a technique that only the Avatar was allowed to do, and take peoples powers away, because he feared that the same fate that his father had would happen to him.

@liquidprince: uh, wasn't the plan always 2 seasons for Korra? Airbender was 3 of the elements, Korra got the 4th and then the spirit world.

I have to agree though. Korra was fun in spots, but ultimately wasn't nearly the masterpiece Airbender was, mainly because the relationship stuff was really hokey. Because Mako was basically 3rd season Zuko and it felt like them trying to appease Zuko Katara shippers or something.

It's going to be four Books with seasons 2-4 being worked on simultaneously. I think it's too premature to judge whether Korra is going to be as good as Avatar, but so far I think it's just really good. As for the relationship stuff, I feel like it was handled really well. I can't really think of a more realistically portrayed love triangle in any cartoons that I've seen in recent years. Also Mako's personality is really nothing like Zukko's. Or at least, that's not something I picked up on. In fact, I wouldn't say Korra is much like Kitara either, aside from them being from the same nations.

@liquidprince: I liked that Korra was different. A main character who uses beating people up as her first, second and third resorts is a pretty hard shift from Aang in the first series, and it was refreshingly neat to watch Korra blast fire with wild abandon. That said, Mako was just not even remotely the kind of character I could like, to the point where I actually started disliking the other characters for tolerating his Bullshit. For all the time spent focusing on how he's a great big brother, he's actually a hilariously shitty big brother. He treats Bolin like an idiot or a fuck-up for most of the season, actively shifts the blame for his mistakes onto Bolin whenever he can... it's fucked up that he gets away with it, and even praised for it. Korra lost some points with me when she shoved her tongue down his throat while he was dating Asami, but I thought they'd at least address that whole thing later- and they did, except that they did it by Mako being pissed off at his brother for 'tattling'. Then he runs off and hooks up with Korra anyways, while Asami gets to have a deathmatch against her dad.

I liked the side characters in Korra a lot more than any of the main characters, is the issue. I also thought they kinda dropped the ball with Amon, but that's a whole different discussion. What mainly put me off of season 1 was Mako, and to a lesser extent, Korra. Bolin was alright, but relegated too quickly to just being comic relief. Asami was awesome, Lin was awesome, Tenzin was just a colossal fuckup from day 1. Maybe season 2 will do good things with what they've got.

@make_me_mad: I'm still not sure about how I feel about Mako and Korra. I dunno if it should have been her and Bolin. But it made sense to me in the context of the story. Also Tenzin is awesome... What are you talking about?!

To me, the reason Mako and Korra work is because you could tell they liked each other since the moment they saw each other. But being the hot headed people they were, they couldn't straight up admit it. The tension was appropriate and realistic. Is Mako a great person? Maybe not. But he's a realistic character and I honestly didn't dislike him. The story is open to really go places. I'm 100% sure they will address the Mako Asame thing.

I really liked the first avatar. The second one not as much, but still good. The characters aren't really as enduring the second time around.

@liquidprince: Alright, she doesn't have to be completely different, but any growth whatsoever would be great. There was none. She's the same selfish, hotheaded child she started off as. The only reason she reached the Avatar state because she was depressed. That is literally it. There was no change up to that point, but suddenly she cries, and bam, she gets her way.

And it doesn't matter if she had feelings for Mako or he had feelings for her. He was in a relationship which she continually inserts herself into at every possible chance. Very early on, when she is well aware he has just gotten a girlfriend, she straight up kisses him. There's even a scene where she talks to her aunt (is that who she was?) about how to handle it and her aunt even tells her that's how she got her man - she pretty much stole him from Beifong. If she wasn't so selfish and Mako truly didn't have any real feelings for Asami, she could have easily let their relationship run it's course, but no. Every single last chance she gets, she tries to steal Mako. And I get the whole "fighting for the person you love" thing, but that doesn't make it any less selfish. She knew how much it would hurt Asami and she didn't care.

As for the whole Amon thing, I was essentially saying they introduce him on this platform that benders are oppressive and there's nothing to protect normal folk from them and blahblahblah. They have Korra abuse her powers like once, but other than that the show never explores the avenue. They do turn him a cookie-cutter psychopath. That's my point. At the very beginning, he seemed like he could be a good guy in the eye of the common person who resides in that universe. He seemed like he could be an antagonist who resided in the morally grey area of things instead of simply turning him into Dr. Evil.

@liquidprince: I don't think Korra and Bolin should hook up, to be clear. I'm totally alright with Mako and Korra hooking up, but them doing it behind Asami's back, while taking her money to fund their team, and Mako dodging the blame for his own mistakes and putting them on Bolin's back is downright disgusting. Realistic, yes, but they're assholes for it, and even moreso for not saying anything to her after she had to beat her father to a pulp to keep him from killing her during the big final battle. Mako has time to run off and comfort Korra, who's crying about only having one of her four elements left- ignoring the people like Lin, who lost everything- but not even a pat on the back for Asami.

As far as Tenzin... well, for one thing, how does he let Lin make a heroic sacrifice so he can escape, then let himself and his entire family get captured offscreen before the next episode even starts?! That, and all the other times he just got beaten embarrassingly easy over the course of the series... it's sad that he's the last person around who's a 'master' of airbending, because he put on a pretty sorry display literally every time he was around. And that's without getting into the Pema thing... bad relationship advice abounds in Legend of Korra.

I thought the bad/fast pacing was a big contributing factor to a lot of these shortcomings babychoochoo mentioned. 12 episodes is just too short for meaningful character development. Don't get me wrong, I still loved season 1 for the universe it was set in. I have high hopes for season 2.

@animasta: Actually the plan was for Korra was to be a one-and-done mini-series. Nickelodeon was surprised by how popular it got so they told them to make more seasons(books) after the first season was done and had fully aired. That's where my problem comes from, the pacing of the first season suffered because they tried to do a lot of things with 12 episodes. Everything about the new season sounds and looks really good.

@make_me_mad: @babychoochoo: You're over simplifying it too much. If you've ever been in a sort of love triangle situation, you would know that that shit is complex and someone is bound to get hurt. Also Tenzin explains the reason he left Beifong in the first place. He may always love her, but their relationship wasn't necessarily something that was conducive to a healthy adult relationship. As adults, they decided to end it and remain friends. This is a very mature concept that goes beyond "she should end up with him," or vice versa. This mirrors Asame and Mako's relationship, and I'm sure we will see it explored further as the show progresses. As for Amon, I think he became a much more interesting villain when we realized that what he was doing wasn't all out of some kind of revenge, but due to him being a fearful person, worried that he would lose his powers to the Avatar like his father before him. His idea of sealing peoples powers made him really cool, and that one thing says a lot about the type of person he is.

Also, as the Avatar, Korra should have theoretically been able to restore peoples powers (which she did) so Mako worrying more about her, then say Lin makes sense to me. The first thing Korra does when she gets her powers back, is to restore Lins.

As for Tenzin, there were plenty of badass moments with him. If you noticed that when he was captured, his wife and newborn child were not there. So, one could assume that he did what he did to let them escape. I mean in comparison, Aang himself was captured plenty of times, and he was the Avatar.

You know what these shows were missing? Heartbending. I suppose they go for that on an audience level.

@liquidprince: Dude, last episode. They raise a stage and bam, Tenzin and his entire family, plus the newborn, are all captured. The dude got beaten up off-screen, after spending the entire series almost being cool and then being beaten up. He didn't save his family, hell, he didn't save anyone, and he was working with a head-start because Lin sacrificed herself to help their escape.

And I think you're misremembering pretty hard if you say Lin and Tenzin had an amiable break-up. Even Tenzin admits she can't stand him, and when they argue at the council she throws out the line "Do whatever you want. It's not like I could ever stop you anyways." Does that sound like something you'd say after a mutual, respectful breakup, or the kind of thing you'd say to someone who ran off to a younger woman and popped out three kids?

Regardless, my main problem with the series was about Mako, who unfortunately was a massive douchebag. Not an unrealistic douchebag, but a douchebag nonetheless. Also, as far as the restoring powers thing, no one knew if they could or not. As far as anyone was concerned at that moment, Korra would be stuck with just airbending forever. Lin would be stuck with no bending whatsoever. Even if they could heal that, Asami would still be left with no father. Because, you know, she beat him down, and he tried to kill her, because she sided with her friends over him. The same friends who... had no words of encouragement or thanks for her, because they were too busy moping over their loss of superpowers. How heartbreaking for them.

I'm pretty sure the newborn wasn't there. As for the break up, yeah it was hard, but it was done because Tenzin realized that his personality didn't gel in the best way with Lins. The creators give a lot of interesting tid bits if you ever get a chance to listen to the episode audio commentaries.

Also, you're thinking kind of small about Korra losing her powers. Yeah all the other stuff was important like Asame losing her traitorous father, but Korra is the Avatar. The Avatar losing her powers is potentially dangerous for the entire world. So her getting her powers back would be number one priority after the Amon conflict.

I get the feeling you're one of those people who tends to say "the first one was better" about a lot of things, (which is fine I guess) but you seem to be judging the characters ridiculously harsh over very minor things. I mean, Mako wasn't even that much of an asshole. Yeah he ended up sort of leaving Asame, but they were only dating for the shortest of times, and in that short time Mako was already considering whether or not he liked her or Asame more. I guess I appreciated that the story wasn't going very simple with the relationships. It had an appropriate level of complexity in my opinion which made it more interesting. I'm sure this relationship stuff will also get expanded on in the coming seasons.

ive been thinking it over and i honestly think the two things i really dont like about korra is pro bending and the time period.

@liquidprince: "I get the feeling you're one of those people who tends to say "the first one was better" about a lot of things" - for future reference, that's about where I decided to stop having this discussion, which is too bad because I was enjoying it. The first show was great. The second one started strong and made a lot of missteps, and the side characters were good. Maybe the second season will be better.

It wasn't meant as an insult. I just meant that, a lot people I've been discussing Korra about in person have tend to be those kinds of people. And they don't really justify why they feel that way. You are attempting to justify it (not that you have to) or explain it so that it makes sense to me. I just don't really understand what you are saying. The things that you say are bad, are things that make this show and it's predecessor stand out for me. They have a sense of verisimilitude in the way they handle relationships.

Both are great series. I do kind of wish the ending of season 1 of Korra was just a little bit different.

I loved both! *walks away*

I still have yet to watch Korra, but Avatar was fantastic.

Avatar and Korra are both great.

Yes I'm an avatar fan and I am super fucking excited for book 2. BRING IT ON!!!!

The ending well done due to it being planed for one season but Korra was great, i'm curious what era the next series will be set in after her story is over, the 70 or 80s?

Gawd, Imagine avatar set in the 90s capturing all that angst it'll probably be a boring movie with an awesome sound track :P

Anyway, back on track, i look forward to the second book.

Both understandable. Although pro bending was originally going to be introduced in Avatar. They just couldn't find a place for it.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is pretty good, especially once they get to the second season. I've heard... less than generous things about Korra and have yet to see it.

Hmm, maybe I should finish this one day too when I'm done rewatching other cartoons. Avatar never really grabbed me though.

@cloudenvy: absolutely do it! by the time you finish the last episode, you'll be glad you did. it only gets better and better as it goes.

could be true. thats another part of my problem with the time period for me. i might have enjoyed it more but the old-timey announcer was probably the worst aspect for me. it made it seem so...idk...silly. not serious. i feel like if it was in TLAB it would have been taken more seriously. heck even toph's blind bandit fights were more serious and intense AND they were full of silliness/jokes.

TLAB did such a good job of pulling off heart/combat/silliness/tragedy/joy/spirituality/etc. all mixed up and more often than not multiple times per episode. korra just doesnt have that same skill, or rather can't pull it off as well.

I respect that opinion. I don't agree with it though. A change in setting was refreshing to me, as was a change in the gender of the Avatar. Also part of the reason Avatar may have felt more serious was because the whole world was at stake in that. Korra's conflict, while having the potential to escalate, was much smaller.

Avatar: The Last Airbender still is the best animated series I've ever watched. I was kinda disappointed with Korra though. The series seemed to me that it lacked heart compared to The Last Airbender. I'm still looking forward to season 2 though.

So excuse me going a bit off topic but I had no idea this series even existed. I watched the original Airbender and enjoyed it a lot - then watched the trailer in this thread and was a bit lost. What is the relation of this series to the original Airbender? Are the original characters present? How many years later is it if there is a new avatar?

@liquidprince: its not that the change of setting was not welcome, not really even the time period. it was how it was executed.

best explained here:

Legend of Korra

70 years after the original. the original cast are all dead except for katara and zuko but you may get some glimpses of them all grown up from time to time. hope that helps!

I too wasn't too enthused with Korra. The relationship stuff is more prominent that TLA and comes off as immaturely annoying. The relationship between Aang and Katara was worked in slowly and thus felt more natural. Korra on the other hand hits you over the head with in instantly and comes off no better than those Nick Teen shows.

Korra also loses the exploration aspect that TLA had. With the world far more advanced I doubt they could ever go back to globe hopping in order to save the world. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the advantage Korra's setting has (the chance to see how bending integrates in a much more technological world) hasn't been fully realized in the first season. The show instead spends half the time delving into that bending sport.

Great shows both of them. I can't think of a world that is more magical and fun.

I impressed with Korra, despite it's faults, most of which are in the last episode (the dumb romance stuff was there throughout, though). It's not often that kid's cartoons broach some of the shit that Korra does, even if the followthrough was pretty lacking, ultimately.

Never could get into TLA, unfortunately. Not through any fault of its own, I suspect, I just don't have even remotely enough patience for a 20-episode season, and mostly appreciated Korra's more digestible 12.

Looking forward to Season 2!

@billymagnum: Hmmmmmm, I might. How many episodes is it again? I'm watching a 74 episode show right now and it's kind of taking a while!

@cloudenvy: 61 and you'll be begging for more XD