Also Vaatu and Ravaa being described as “good vs evil” was the first mistake. Describing them as “order and chaos” would’ve made more sense, and could’ve been used as a better narrative thread for the season.
@@caydengarvey657right. In future reincarnations the writers should explore the Avatar's morals and balance with Vaatu being inside them. I also like the fan theory that once Vaatu is born, the Avatar would be twins (light and dark), it could create a very interesting dynamic.
Another possible use would have been that the avatar has BOTH Ravaa and Vaatu. Both good and evil lies inside the avatar and is the struggle to maintain balance that leads the avatar to be as powerful as they are.
@@icarue993That could work better if they were order and chaos and maybe when the first Avatar defeated chaos order became to powerful and he needed to take the power of both of them. And maybe Unalock wanted to become a new Avatar with only order rather than just an evil Avatar
@@ottoww289 or maybe they take different extremes with each iteration. Granted, chaos and order fit both Aang and Kora. I'd argue that Aang is more chaotic at the beginning, with Korra being more Lawful, granted, her "laws" but still.
I watched the Legend of Korra for the first time last year, after being a huge ATLA fan since I was a kid. I had avoided it for a long time because of the negative reputation it had. I wish I had given it a chance sooner, but I'm sort of glad that I watched it as an adult. I feel like the themes and Korra's character resonated with me more as a young adult trying to figure things out.
Same! Just finished Korra after trying to start watching it like three times over the years, and I watched ATLA like 12 times, and it was quite the journey
Meanwhile, it feels like Korra’s gang only came about because they were vaguely similar to the previous series’ main characters and the creators rested on their laurels.
@@Loppedofflemons The fact that they’re friends after one of them broke up with Korra, got with Asami and pretended to be Korra’s boyfriend when she got amnaesia and neither Bolin or Asami stepped in… That’s not a miracle. That’s something the writers made for themselves to keep this musical chairs BS going.
About the short cuts you mentioned that the writers took in season 4: the writers had to sacrifice one episode (which became the recap episode) because of sudden budget cuts by Nickelodeon. Seriously, Nickelodeon did they best to sabotage TLOK at every turn, not realizing at all what they have with the Avatar Universe.
I would have loved Korra so much if it wasn't for Nick. Having a known number of episodes and having more time to develop Korasami (I think back then, same sex couples were a nono in tv) would have made the series maybe even better than ATLA. A well developed cast tackling the mature themes they tackled would have been amazing. Yet again... I was not super happy with Dragon Prince. I feel Korra S3-4 were better than Dragon Prince S1-3.
@@icarue993 Same sex couples weren't exactly unheard of back then, but the issue for me is that they focused WAY too much on the romance in Korra. Sure, the original series had bits of it here and there and some touching moments, but it was never at the forefront of any plot. At the end of the day, budget cuts or no, bad is bad, and the romance in the show was God awful. Korra bounced partners like nobodies business and it was annoying.
I disagree while Nick's meddling certainly didn't help Korra as a show isn't that good. The characters don't feel like friends, character growth seems to be all over the place with Korra literally learning the same damn lesson every season. The main relationship entirely underdeveloped and a lot of them feeling very one note.
I think something that was awesome about Korra that sets it apart from ATLA is just how intimidating the villains she faces are. Aang always held back when fighting and only really had to go all out against ozai and sometimes azula for the most part, and Amon, Zahir, and Kuvira being arguably the best benders of their respective type was a great thematic way to challenge the Korra as the Avatar, a person usually seen physically unparalleled Edit: my phone always auto corrects Korra’s name to Korea
Yeah aside from azula or ozai none of aang villains were really threatening and I never really felt like aang life was in danger but korra her villains especially for a nickelodeon show were very menacing and scary.
yeah. But Amon was wasted as fck. They didnt even had to fight him. Amon took a punch from Korra then ran away without a fight and “oh brother i love you so much”… like fck off thats lame and out of the blue.
Ozai was not a great villain. Because we've never seen him acting. The only time he fought before the last fight with Aang, his lightning had been redirected by Zuko (who also ostensibly didn't fear him in a non-bending fight), and we know Iroh thought a fight between them would have gone 50-50, so he doesn't give the impression of being such a Juggernaut. One of the reasons why the final agni-kai is so much more satisfying, besides the psychological drama of the fight between brothers, is because we've always seen Azula as invincible. Unfortunately LOK villains lack in the other department. They never grow beyond being cartoonishly "bad guys". Their ideas may have had some merit, but they are only extremists. In this, all of them are "Ozai". While, in ATLA, team Zuko and Team Azula were part of the family. You knew MANY things about their lives, and why they acted like they did. Even Jet was written better than the best villain of LOK. The worse is in the first book. Where the chi-blockers are only an army of faceless minions, led by a masked guy that only in the final episode is revealed to be a never heard before brother of another character (who was revealed to be a bloodbender, son of anoter bloodbender we've never heard before, three episodes before). It cant' be shallower than that. Why should we care of those guys?
I kinda like the odd friendship between Bolin and Asami. They hang out with each other the most outside of Mako and Korra respectively, the people they tend to get paired with most frequently. It's not anything super deep, but it provides some nice contrast between their upbringings and leads to some humorous moments
LoK is certainly flawed, but I still love so much of it. Season 2 is the only one that I would considered truly subpar, but Season 3 and 4 stepped up quite a bit. Even with Season 2, there's some good stuff, the animation in general, Iroh's scenes, getting to see more of the spirit world. While part of this may be because of the shows somewhat troubled behind the scenes issues, we still have to take the show as it is. While it's not as good as Avatar, I still love the show, and think it gets too much hate not only for its mistakes, but partly because so many people were expecting a show just like Avatar and didn't get that.
true. I think the hate comes from tge first two season. I almost stopped watching but i was told the third season is great. So i continoued and season 3 felt like i wacthed ATLA again. It was really great
your reasoning for not including suki makes complete sense and that's the thing; every member of team korra feels like suki. they all have connections to korra but none to each other. they feel like coworkers who are around each other because they happen to work at the same place, not because they actually value each others company
Suki is a member of the team but she is not a protagonist: she didn’t have a character arc, a theme or a narrative role. She was just a cool character that Sokka was dating, and she only joined the last four episodes.
The thing is that the 5 members of the Gaang are the main characters, in Korra they aren't the only main characters. Tenzin, Lin, Suyin and even Varrick are just as important. It's just a different show, with different dynamics a different focus.
@@LuisGustavoSO Bolin? or how his name is spelled. He only was useful in season 3. Other than that he didnt do anything remotely important, otherthan beeing a not funny Sokka
I always thought that Korra cries at the end of season 3 because of the resemblance of Jinora and Aang. Like Korra seeing Aang getting congrats, while she has failed over and over and will never accomplished the respect that Aang did.
As I got older, I resonated with Korra's inability to move forward from the attempted poisoning, as she dragged her feet through life, holding onto resentment and feeling weak. The idea we're not the same after trauma is true, but we can still relearn strength. Thinking you can't be strong again is precisely what holds you back.
That’s so true, that why I loved TLOK. I mean.. have you even seen a main character/superhero in a wheel chair? That was powerful. My favorite season is number 4 because of the healing process Korra goes through
The first time I saw ‘The Legend of Korra’ on Nickelodeon many years ago, I wasn’t a big fan because it felt different. But now, as an adult and rewatching the entire series, I can genuinely say I love the show.
At 58:32 You said Korra instead of Kuvira, which is funny since the writers wanted them to be alike, not just in name but in personality, Kuvira is a lot like Korra in season 2, but now Korra isnt like herself in that time.
i was literally four years old when it came out but somehow i agree with you. i remember being excited to watch the new avatar episodes like it was yesterday but now I'm in high school and disappointed in the new live action adaptation. time is weird.
It’s a actually a pretty good show on its own. The problem is it’s hard for people not to compare it to ATLA which I understand but it’s a completely different avatar with a different personality in a different era. I’ll acknowledge the writing isn’t as good but the fight scenes and the choreography are amazing and it has some really great moments. It’s not one cohesive story like ATLA, each season has its own story. I’ve always loved the show having watched it for the first time as a kid and even more now as an adult. I try to separate it from ATLA and not get too hung up on the comparisons.
I feel like if they did just three things then I wouldn’t hate it as bad. 1 character development, i feel like the characters just don’t change and it felt like if they do it’s a temporary change that doesn’t last. 2 character relationships, if they gave more time with the characters actually doing something other than solely driving plot then the show would immediately be better to me and solve some problems others have with it. 3 not destroying the link to past avatars, past avatars are the most important to me because there are so many stories and wisdom that can be told through them and they are fan favorites and cutting them out of the story felt like the writers didn’t like the previous series and wanted a wall between the new show and previous lore of the world
The idea of Vaatu and Raava isn't even a bad idea and could have played into the themes of everything not being so black and white like you said. Having their be two different spirits each representing a difference in role and personality could have also been a great way to both subvert expectations and helped with Korra's arc of learning that not everything is black and white. When Korra meets Raava and Vaatu for the first time of course sides with Raava because she's supposed to be the embodiment of all good but after working with her for a bit she has a realization that Raava's methods are flawed regardless of how well intention it might be. This would also be a great way to trick the audience inot thinking this is just going to be a classic story between good vs evil but then turns into something more complex. Then she meets Vaatu and has realization that while Vaatu's methods might be cruel and unjust they are a necessary evil and do have some positive outcomes. After working with both of them this could also help in trying to find a balance between the Northern and Southern Water Tribes. And in the final battle between Raava and Vaatu they both try to convince Korra to choose a side but rather than doing that she finds some kind of middle ground that keeps them both of them in balance.
I actually really like Korra, not as much as ATLA but I still quite enjoy it. I found season 1, 3, and 4 to be good but I really didn't like season 2, mostly cus I don't like the villain or the main conflicted. I feel like the world in Korra is actually a good progression to the world in ATLA and I love most of the villains. I honestly feel like the only bid down side of legend of Korra is the main group. As you said in your video of ATLA, the relashionships between every single character were very well developed but In Korra the four of them are never together except for when they first meet, plus the whole love triangle really destroyed the group dynamic
I agree about season 2, but I did really enjoy the two part story about Avatar Wan and the whole origins of bending. And we got to see Iron again. So even the weakest season had some bright spots.
@@stewhv94 I like Avatar Wan and the way the world used to be, and I even like that there was an entity for light and darkness. I just don't like the whole final fight to be good vs bad, especially after the whole point of ATLA is that it's much more complicated than that
Amon is a critique of populism and the cult of personality not communism. He doesn’t care about economics or redistribution or the idea of a stateless society. He even teams up with the richest man in Republic City which is not what a communist would do but rather what a populist would do. Mustache Man in WW2 is a great example of this as he had the support of many of the richest men and women in Germany at the time.
I was trying to figure out a way to explain how Amon is definitely not communist, and you nailed it. Amon very much aligns himself with capital, and the focus on the non-bender/bender dynamic over a class based politics makes it feel more opportunist. Amon definitely uses fair left wing critique of the bending dominated government similar to how the Nazis would use socialist messaging in their propaganda, but by the end of the season, it’s shown that Amon, like the Nazis, did not care about that inherit inequality in the world, he just wanted that to benefit him and his cronies. If Amon is a communist, he’s a very lousy communist
THANK YOU. I was confused at the communism comparison. For some reason, people are focusing on communism, and blaming capitalism for society's hardship. It's some large corporate capitalism, not all capitalism.
@@ZancoIntel I mean any ideology that places capital over people or outcomes is fundamentally flawed. Corporatism just allows more people to see beyond the curtain. But a system that values wealth above all else will always fail
I really like your interpretation on the end of season 3 because when i 1st watched i was also confused on why she's crying i just assumed because of s4 she was reflecting on how all her villains have damaged her and there's even a edited clip on RUclips showing that. But yeah it does make sense korra loves being the avatar and even though it wasn't tenzin intention he basically said we don't need you.
I think too it's probably a combination of a lot of huge conflicting emotions for Korra. She's sad that she's not needed while being happy for jinora while also in pain from what she just experienced. She has this almost wistful smile that makes me think it's a little bit more than just straight sadness.
To be fair, Korra couldn't develop relationships because of the limitations in episode number. Last Airbender had so many "filler" episodes in order to do that.
yeah but that still doesnt explain things like certain things that were not foreshadowed at all, just happen for the sake of the plot. Atla was well tooght out, a masterclass in writing. While Korra was for the most part mid. Its crazy that the creators were the same. Also it doesnt explain why you resonate with Atla from episode 3, while you need 2 seasons of Korra to not have a Korra carries everything feeling
I wish there had been more nuance with Korra in season 2 because I actually really liked that Korra had a bitch era. She was a teenager unlike Aang so having her be shity for a bit is great in theory. She has uncontrollable hormons and insane amounts of power so there is a fun dynamic to play with there, I just don't think the writers achieved that unfortunately. Great video thanks for all the effort! Gonna go do a Korra rewatch now 😊
Bolin has a pretty strong relationship with everyone on the team. Asami and bolin spend lots of time together and even have a convo about mako amd korra. What do you define a deep conversation. Lol also tenzin undergoes a drastic character arc realizing he is not his father nor is meant to be. He had to seperate himself from who he thought he should be.
In my opinion, the first villain of Amon and his thing isn’t about communism, because communism is is an economic stature. Well, there might be subtle hints of the wealth. It doesn’t help that one of the wealthiest people in the world is on the sides of the communist. It’s more like a subtle coup of the status quo but also they need to show more of the oppression to fully get the message across that this is, a rebellion of sorts
I have seen so many reviews of this series where they call it mediocre or terrible with good bits. I am not a critic like others may be I just like content unless it’s not connected or makes sense
Communism absolutely is NOT an economic system. It's a moral 1. They make moral judgement upon those who work hard and struggle to achieve opulence while indulging their worst instincts of jealousy and greed. They praise Cain and they heap moral judgement upon Abel in a sick twisted and disgusting inversion of true morality.
I adored Amon/Noatak. So angry they killed him and tarrlok. I was really hoping he’d b like Zuko or even Kuvira. Good people that made bad decisions and is helped by Korra to heal and redeem
Season Two: How great would it have been if Unalaq was increasingly portrayed as a fundamentalist and authoritarian religious type? I mean, that seems to be what the initial concept was? And what if the weird simplistic dualism that creeps in was actually just his interpretation of things-given that fundamentalist religion is generally built on such foundations-that he slowly gets Korra on board with at first, but that she comes to ultimately reject through embracing complexity and dynamic balance. Like, what sold Vatuu, like Heibai, turned out to be Ravva’s lost partner? Who got angry and confused and needs help? And so the Korra ultimately becomes a more complete Avatar by healing Vatuu and bring them back into dynamic relationship with Ravva and… what do you know, there’s the whole theme of romantic relationships, socio-political relationships, etc. creeping back in! And how about, in such healing, she helps Unalaq see that, while his critiques of commodification and lack of discipline or whatever had a point, he was trying to create a static balance instead of a dynamic one? And then to pare that storyline with Korra not having her full bending (except maybe while in the Avatar State) and the beginning-which would also justify her being an asshole to everyone and blowing up her relationships-and Unalaq manipulating her into his dualism with the promises you suggest… yeah, that would’ve been solid!
And as an addendum: There is “good” and “evil” per se in East Asian yin/yang based philosophies: Dynamic balance is “good” (think rising a skateboard), while static balance (think balanced scales that never change) or static imbalance is “evil.” You see this play out in, for example, Chinese demonology, in which demons (read: evil spirits) are not inherently evil, but evil by virtue of (usually) static imbalance (and occasionally static balance). This was beautifully exemplified in ATLA, while Korra definitely lost the thread. I bring this up, however, to call out an issue in your analysis: There also isn’t “morally grey” in East Asian philosophies, either. There are complexities in how dynamic balance plays out (indeed, one of the chief selling points of such philosophies is how they allow space for such complexities), but “morally grey” as a concept relies heavily on the one-dimensional simplicity of understanding ethics and balance in the image of the “scales of justice” or similar concepts. Such one-dimensionality relies on such a dualistic struggle between ontological good and ontological evil, as exemplified in season two of TLoK.
The main differences between the 2 are that ATLA is a character driven story where Korra is a plot driven story. I wish they had focused more on the characters in Korra, not just the main characters, but also the villians. This is the real reason people don't like Korra as much as they do ATLA. Because things happen simply because the writers say they do and not because we actively see the characters growing, changing and making decisions. The character's choices are plot devices instead of being built upon the character's growth and individual story.
It's say this is the biggest thing and partly that's exactly why it fails for so many people. When you're known for doing amazing character arcs and analysis it's really hard to watch it be sidelined for the growth of only the main character [who even then focuses heavily on a lot of flaws that don't often get shown the better side]. I think personally LOK also suffers from having so many characters and their dynamics be at the focus without always trying to do more for it; it's like once establishing that we want to see how generations impact it can very easily become overwhelming to want to include it all which for how short LOK actually is there is a sense where I'd rather have condensed down parts of the growing cast to focus in. Adding in so many romance plots, not focusing on establishing solid character journeys for at least the main cast outside of Korra, and even not fully realizing it plot arcs all the way through [something I think because there was such a good grasp on the characters from the start always made it so outcomes were met, and in LOK things are just resolved because they need to be] all tend to limit LOK in a way that doesn't make it a bad show but holds it back.
Uhh this is an interesting viewpoint... I would say the plots of Korra were completely oriented around Korras growth. It's the legend of Korra thus it's all about her. The show did a great job exploring Korras psyche and showing how she's forced to change and then grows. Equally this speaks to a "truism" that evil will always exist, regardless of the face, rationale, people behind it, it's largely the same motivations. I feel like we needed characterizations of ozai azula and zuko as zuko was a main character who needed plot, not that aangs enemy needed fleshing out.
@@fungichef1 how is that what you've gleaned from what I said?? What kinda well of assumptions are you drinking from? Is it the issue that azula wasn't in LOK? While it could've been cool for her to be there I'm not surprised considering the only survivors from ATLA were katara, a healer, toph, a master earth bender, and zuko, a healthy royal. It would track that azula would've died by then or have been killed early in some conflict.. the brightest stars burn out faster.
31:49 I disagree with your take on the group dynamic in LoK. Having a good group dynamic isn’t just about having deep conversations with everyone in the group. In fact I think it’s pretty clear that, that’s not what LoK is going for. LoK focuses more on the characters having fun together and enjoying each others company in different ways rather then all of them trauma dumping on each other. A perfect example of this is Bolin and Asami. They never have a deep conversation but they maintain a good friendship where they both have very different approaches to life and learn from each other. We see this particularly when they were playing Pai-Cho together. Asami says the game is about patience and strategy while Bolin says the game is about being aggressive and moving fast. In the end Asami crushed him in pai-Cho bcs Asami’s approach is better suited for a strategy game but later in the episode the gang gain the trust of some locals thanks to Bolin being a movie star. Which is something that happened because he just kinda jumped at the opportunity without any strategy.
@@Rambrus0 I don’t see how a good dynamic in a story can’t mimic a healthy friendship in real life. Sometimes having characters that just enjoy each other’s company and have each others back without needing to know each others trauma is fine
My biggest problem with this video is the way in which he talks about the group dynamic. You’re doing from a family-style always together, limited group… to a vast array of characters with all their lives being lived, coming together to accomplish goals. And the way he disregards Korra and Asami’s relationship ignoring that offscreen Korra only wrote to asami because she felt close to her and comfortable enough to talk about everything. But this guy says they weren’t even friends.,,, sure…
I wish I liked or enjoyed Korra half as much as I love Avatar: The Last Airbender. There's just too many flaws for me to enjoy. I struggled to just finishing each season. Season three was the best but also has issues and it wasn't enough to make me like the show. Season two Sigh. I hate it! just ruins and breaks too many things. I choice to ignore and act like it didn't happen... Season 4 is good, though I think it rushes through too many things. I could easily go on and on way I didn't like it but will keep it short. I don't mind people liking the show and saying they think its good. Each to their own. I do struggle when people say its great or as good as the Last Airbender. I just don't understand or able to comprehend it. Anyways. Good video. Enjoyed watching and listening to someone point out way they liked the show. I love hearing different views and opinions.
I love that the legend of Korra doesn't retread the same story from the original show. The world building is emphasized more, the villains all have understandable motives but have messed up ways of achieving their goals. Still by the shows conclusion Peace is achieved in a way that amon, unalak, Zaheer, and kaveera All would have probably agreed with. Very cool IMO. Correction: not so much unalak my bad, still love the show though.
Season 1: I don't know if this was the writers' intention, but I think the Equalists are more comparable with race or other identity politics than they are with Communism. They also illustrate the idea that those who believe themselves marginalized aren't always the good guys. Sometimes those who cry oppression are looking from a skewed perspective, or straight up lying. Aside from the Triads (who are a problem for everyone weaker than them), there is no evidence of systemic non-bender oppression. We don't see them denied jobs, or the right to vote, or due process (until Tarlokk's emergency measures). The Equalists' main argument is "You can bend while we can't, and that's just not fair!" Season 2: I mostly agree with your perspective on this season, but I liked Korra's reconciliation with her father. Not often that you see the hero overwhelmed with relief that they DIDN'T have to beat somebody up. Oh and at 25:38, again you say that the past Avatars told Aang he had to kill Ozai. As I pointed out in the previous video's comment: NONE OF THEM SAID THIS. Sorry to keep harping on this but It's one of my favorite scenes in the series and I hate seeing it misrepresented. Team Avatar: I really hated the soup opera drama with Korra and her TA. And the way she treated Mako, without ever apologizing or even being called out for it, nearly wrecks her character for me. I feel a bit guilty about it now, but my initial thoughts about her going through PTSD was that she really needed a humble pie to the face. Season 3: Nothing to add here, a good season with though-provoking villains. Season 4: Good ideas, but Kuvira was too cartoonish, and also the walking mechs were jumping the shark. I also wish than when Korra got her mojo back, she made up with Mako and apologized for her rotten attitude.
Their entire system of govt in season 1 is one of power hoarders and foreign wealthy folks putting their arrogance before the lives of Republic city. Amon was right that non-benders HAVE historically been marginalized and able to be marginalized and so far no one cared about them. He took reality, made a reframed story, and harnessed peoples real experiences. I didn't care to read the rest of your post bc it feels like you're inferring something you personally believe in.. which is something 🤦🏾♂️
Yea I really wish Korra made time for both mako and Bolin, who were just as much supportive and by her side, just as much (if not more) as asami. She could’ve apologized for not writing to them and for being a jerk, especially in the past; but that she loved and adored them for everything they did for her and that she’d like to begin anew. But instead we get none of that, just a ‘I don’t know what to say’. 🥴🙄
@christymitchell4763 I mean.. she's 20/21 when the show ended. Do we really expect young people to have perfect relationship and communication? I think she did her best which is pretty good, given the circumstances, but like obviously not perfect
1. Korra getting her bending back never bothered me after 3 seasons of aang learning the elements i honestly wouldn't have been interested in seeing that again i feel that s1 should've had 1 more episode seeing korra trying to navigate the world with only airbending wjth her slowly getting to her lowest point then at the end of the episode have aang show up. 2. I feel like I'm the only person who likes s2 specifically the big kaiju battle i guess I'm a huge superhero fan and love world ending stakes so i guess thats why it's fine. 3. I actually like korra using the avatar state in a petty way because it's a subtle arc through s2 with korra just using the avatar state in every situation because be honest if you could use it whenever you wanted you would. But korra constantly using the avatar state had a consequence with raava being ripped from her and losing the past lives and after she fuses with raava she only uses it twice in s3 one of those instances she was forced to and sparingly in s4.
I love kaiju battles too, I just feel like it doesn't belong in Avatar, it's way too wacky and over the top for a mostly grounded fantasy story in my opinion. I like ice cream, I like pizza, but I don't wanna have ice cream on my pizza.
@joshuasgameplays9850 honestly the reason the kaiju battle didn't bother me was because energybending was never clearly defined so I can believe someone could Astral project using it also it was harmonic convergence where al spiritual energy is at its most powerful so its literally a one time thing that can never happen again.
Point 1. I agree. Maybe take a few episodes, allow her to become a better and more spiritual air Bender and then gain the Avatar state. Getting it after taking an L seems wrong. Point 2. I disagree. I like Godzilla but that not what I want from Avatar. There is also the world breaking retcons that acompany the spirit Kaiju. Point 3. I half agree. Seeing her be petty is fine, seeing her get the Avatar state without any effort is not. It feels unearned. I hate everything to do with Rava and Vatu.
The best masterpieces are still often flawed, and imo, LoK is a masterpiece. Sadly people had "comparisitis" where they could only compare it to ATLA (which also has plenty of issues on its own but people gloss over those whenever they criticize LoK for some reason), instead of looking at LoK for what it is I'm glad more people are watching/rewatching Korra (especially as adults) and understanding that it has incredible themes and has so much impact if you simply let the show be itself instead of "this isn't ATLA"
While I do agree people tend to gloss over ATLAs flaws It's very, very... ignorant, to dismiss comparisons to ATLA. Korra piggybacks off of ATLA, it references it regularly, uses its characters, affects that story. It is IMPOSSIBLE not to compare them. As for the show itself, the 2 main issues with TLOK compared to ATLA. There's no singular overarching goal that runs in the background. In ATLA you have the final goal, stop the fire nation from taking over the world. The various seasons each have their own separate major plot point, but all of them revolve around that central plot point. The 2nd MAJOR issue with TLOK is the characters compared to ATLA. Team Korra don't have relationships between each other like Team Aang. But even worse than that Korra as a character, her progression will give you whiplash, because it feels like she gets a hard reset every single damn season. So while TLOK is far from a bad show. While ATLA has plenty of flaws. Korra is treated harsher by fans for good reason.
@@AgentZombie6021i do not think its fair bc of the restriction Nick was putting on the LOK, if they were able to have like 20 episodes per season I think they show which i thought was great wouldn’t been more vastly loved, I will say in the LOK i personally thought Amon and Zaheer were better villains than Ozai, until that final episode they were more relevant during there seasons than Ozai was in any of ATLA and I do think rn if there was a kid who watched ATLA and the LOK he would pick the LOL but my girlfriend who is 21 I convinced her to watch both shows and she liked the LOK way better than ATLA and when I asked her reasoning she said that the LOK felt like a more mature show for her while she still liked ATLA she said she feels like that would capture a child’s attention more easily but the LOK seemed more her vibe bc the age of korra and she also liked how there was a variety of likeable characters, so while my view point might be biased she was someone who hadn’t seen any of these and felt like the LOK defentiley fits an older audience
@@AgentZombie6021korra getting a “reset” to her character every season is definitely a stretch. I only felt like that happened during S2 S3-4 her character definitely felt more mature, reasonable & felt like she was growing into her role as an avatar & a leader. Definitely a step up from how she was in S1
A more interesting explanation as to why the avatar is special and the bridge between the mortal and the spirit realm would have been to make the avatar the valve that helps to regulate the flow of the cosmic/spiritual energy produced by the constant clashing between Vaatu and Raava. And to make this two the actual enbodiments of the trascendent concepts of "order" and "caos", like, not in a black and withe manner. For example, instead of making this two hate eachother, they could have simply stated that the reason they are constantly clashing is not because they hate each other, but because that is the way they are able to conect with each other, plus, in their eyes, the clashing could be actually something closer to ethier rough play or an eternal dance responsable for the constant release and reabsortion of cosmic energy or somethin like that. And in this case, the real reason the avatar is special is because the first avatar saw how outcome of this "cosmic dance" deeply affected everyone, for both good and bad but more impontant, how this whole thing fomented a really instable world for the humans that, as a response, antagonised all spirits. Following this logic, the avatar wold have become the valve of spiritual/cosmic energy to stop the constan conforntation againts spirits, to ensure a more estable and prosper future to humanity and to maintain the balance of the universe without appealing to violence. Making the avatar the representative of both Raava and Vaatu.
LoK wasn't that bad. it was just shafted by the writers with terrible and convoluted writing, that disrespected the original material. it had deep themes too, like the water-bender civil war which was something I was exited to see. only for it to be shit on by the writers thinking 'dark avatar' was a better idea, which ended being absolute shit in every possible way.
If the writing is bad and terrible then I think we can say the show is bad and terrible. I don’t think the show is completely awful, but bad writing definitely handicaps it a ton.
I don't like how people say "this show disrespects the original material". This IS the original material. It's literally the same crew of writers and people. Sure you can say you don't like it and that's fine, I also think it's very flawed, but it is canon to the world of Avatar, and it is the same crew. It's more "original material" than arguably the Star Wars Sequels.
I haven't watched this show in years. But I remember really liking it. I do remember feeling like the second season was so much bigger than seasons 3 and 4 tho. Like subject matter wise. Like the bad guy in season 2's power level was way beyond Season 3 and 4s villains. It would be like Goku going from Frieza to Buu. Then going back to the androids and Cell. It's been awhile tho, so perhaps it's time for a rewatch. Awesome video man.
I personally don't mind the concept of a dark avatar because I believe it would've been a fantastic way to reveal that the Avatar, the ultimate arbiter of balance, was fundamentally out of balance all along. And has been for ten thousand years. Sure, with Raava's vessel at the helm the world had order and relative "peace" - the 100 year war not withstanding, but order and peace came at the cost of progress. Subsequently every nation was kept in a state of relative stagnation. Which could add another underlying element to why Roku was so against Sozen's ambitions to expand. Maybe tweak it so Unalaq's plan to help Korra restore her bending was to have the Avatar merge with Vaatu to force the Avatar spirit back into balance. As for why Vaatu is 'evil' - well, of course he's pissed. Raava is his other half and he got cut off from her. When La lost Tui, he went absolutely berserk and destroyed an entire navy and that was for only a couple minutes at most. Vaatu's been trapped for 10k years! His fury would be unending.
Not only is the fact that a nonbender president replaced the all bender council kind of a copout, *it wasn't even an all bender council* The fact that in season 1 all members of it were benders was a complete coincidence, we see in a flashback that Sokka was once a councilman, in fact he was the chairman of the council. This means that it was entirely possible for nonbenders to gain significant political power in the UR well before Raiko was elected. Sure, you could argue that nonbenders we're necessarily barred from holding office, and instead it was just much harder for them due to systemic bigotry and bias in the voterbase. But I would argue that's a moot point, since it goes completely unaddressed in the text.
@@Stahlwald I do believe that it's at least partially based on communism, but I'm not very confident the writers ever intended for it to be a 1:1 allegory. If it WAS meant to be a direct allegory, they did a pretty bad job.
@@joshuasgameplays9850 No. You said the council wasn't benders-only, but it was. For all we know, Sokka only got his position because of his connection to Aang.
To me, Korra isn't bad it just suffers from wanting to do so much when Nick didn't care to give them that time. A lot of people note that the less episodes really impacts a show and it's true, but the only way to handle that is often to know when to hold back on story elements. I see this in a lot of stories that it's easy to over-add elements because you love the world and it's complexities but not knowing the future means you also run the risk of overburdening what little you have. People often go on about how ATLA had a lot of filler but the answer is it didn't really to me, it just was willing to play with pacing and needed development while understanding where things come from to follow it through to the end because you know where things needed to go and how to get them there. People have pointed out there are only really 4 filler episodes with one being the recap episode yet even those do something to highlight parts of the world; The Great Divide is hated but it does explore Sokka/Katara's differences and how easy it is for communities to split. The Fortuneteller teaches others to not be blindly reliant and that things aren't always to be trusted because we are told, something that comes up in Ba Sing Se in a much more direct way. And the Painted Lady showcases the Fire Nation doesn't necessarily care about it's civilians in favor of the war, it continues to humanize many of the lower class as being victims just as much to greed and war. It would be much more difficult for LOK to use time as just full on character episodes but it wouldn't take much to also look at each episode and plan out how characters had a bigger construal role from point a to b in how they change like Korra by the better shaping of b plots and motivations. It didn't always do things perfectly, but if I look at relationships between the two series for example we can romantic threads being used without often being the sole focus allowing for characters to still act on their own; Sokka has a scene where he is shaped by his time with Yue and what that later means for when Suki is imprisoned. By taking the plot driven approach romance was the key tie to actions but it often felt like characters were lost in the romance aspect beyond their own growth. People say they come off as more of a friendship viable in this setting but then that ignores that the show relies on their relationships to establish them as characters, but then those relationships tend to overall falter because it doesn't care to go more in depth with it's impacts of characters in the long run-- the dynamics of being ex's would have done great into shaping character arcs of needing to be better because romance in involved rather than just showing us scenes of them together.
My assumption for why they kept the Air Nomads after they got Korra was that they would (assumingely) release them after they ensured Korra was indeed taken out. If Korra somehow broke free, was freed, and got away, the Air Nomads could be a reminder that Korra and Co shouldn’t try anything crazy.
What I am most upset about is the idea of Korra disconnecting her past lives of the Avatars, including Aang himself. How can either she or the next reincarnations gain some wisdom from their predecessors? That is what makes me stop watching this show after the end of season 2.
Girl, they told you why it happened... It's the legend of Korra... She is now the wisest avatar available in a brand new world. Wans predecessor only had him, a pretty shite avatar considering he had no real tutelage. Korra had all the tutelage of past lives, wan, raava AND made her own decisions and reshaped the world. If you can't cope with a changing story sure... But it's pretty well explained and frankly understandable. It would be weird if in a brand new world legend nothing changed?? I would say the advice of the past lives are just flawed now, dangerous even to pin the choices of reality on the wisdom of 10000 years ago.
@@fungichef1 girl wtf are these sideways comments you're making?? The avatar past lives aren't history books, they're individuals with a biased perspective who would've held their own biases throughout their lives. If Korra followed wan the world would still be unbalanced. If she followed kyoshi she might've ended kuvira. Korra clearly sought guidance from her elders and masters (as all avatars should do). But to conflate "history" with the perspective of individuals, is quite dangerous. The avatar universe seems to have history books, but they're not well preserved as they're seemingly monopolized by wan shi tong, asshole who knows 10,000 things too few.
@@keatonkitsune4064 "wisest avatar available". She's the wisest by proxy, and arguably wiser than Wan who just... Banished the spirits instead of maybe teaching humans to live harmoniously with them. Reading and reading comprehension is super important.
If I can sum up Legend of Korra with one phrase, it would be "missed opportunity". They had a great setup with Amon in Season 1, a great setup with Unalaq in Season 2, a great setup with Kuvira in Season 4, yet failed to properly resolve any of them. The only kinda satisfying ending was with the Red Lotus in Season 3, but even then the heroes weren't really forced to deal with the ideology of their opponents in a real way, which should be the point of villains with "good intentions", but they end up being resolved with a boss fight anyway. Antagonists are there to challenge the hero, either externally, like Sauron or Ozai from ATLA, forcing them to grow and overcome them; or internally, like what they're trying to accomplish with LOK. However, this failure to present the characters with this internal struggle of whether "the antagonist is right" leads to a disconnect between the story and the plot, and leads to most of the character progression feeling forced, or weid, or rushed.
Yeah, every single season has a great premise and then screws it up (3rd excluded), the first season talking about non-bender inequality was good, but it wasn’t shown as much as told, and the one big time we are shown oppression with the curfew is a response to the equalists, and by the end everything is resolved because the leader is a hypocrite so we don’t need to deal with any consequences, also, the entire time it sets up a need for spirituality to airbend and then she unlocks it through selflessness, which is very actively not what we were told she would need, season two I think had the best premise of any season, a civil war between the north and the south, not black and white issues that the avatar might not be able to solve, spirituality in a new world, and how taking no side can be siding with the oppressor, yes please, give me more of all of that, and then the entire thing derails itself, funnily enough I think season three had the worst premise, I don’t like how harmonic convergence just made a new Airbenders and effortlessly undid a genocide but the rest of the season did everything, amazingly, and season four had an ok premise, but then went too far showing how kuvira was evil which took away all nuance and turned the plotline of some of team avatar siding with her from one that could be interesting to one of the characters just being deceived, I also hate the fact that it devolved into a giant mech fight
My biggest issue with the show will always be how they made changes to the world of avatar that often contradicted the original series and felt disrespectful to the original show, but that’s one of the other big ones
@@KaiHung-wv3ul yeah, everything relating to spirits is the biggest example of that, but there’s also how they broke every single rule established for bloodbending, and a lot of other smaller things throughout the show, even if the legend of Korra was entirely separate from avatar I would dislike the show (there are a whole host of issues that I have with the show), but I certainly wouldn’t hate it as much as I do, a sequel series should build on the world that already exists in ways that makes sense as a continuation from the original, not just change things for the convenience of the story it wants to tell and certainly not doing so in a way that feels disrespectful to the original
Bolin is my fav character but literally just followed everyone around in the first 3 seasons. I'm not gonna argue whether he got a lot of character development but seeing with kuvira to try and rebuild the earth kingdom thinking he was doing the right thing only to find out what kuvira's plans really were really hit hard. Opal and him even broke up bc he chose to stay with kuvira. My fav sequence with bolin was his escape after the train up until after the fight with the escaped benders. I'm just glad bolin got to do something.
Such a well made video, so much of the analysis is very in depth and bringing up ideas that I had never considered even after being a long time fan. One thing is at 47:31. When you say that you don’t think the Earth Kingdom would fall into chaos that quickly. I was thinking that this was showing how weak the Queen’s government was because she was so narcissistic or disconnected that she believed her kingdom was strong when it was far from it. And that there was so much dislike of the Queen that the people just needed that one action for a few people to start the chaos then it exploded exponentially. That being said, the chaos and immediate fires at just about every block do seem very exaggerated. But either way, still great analysis as always 👍
Asami and Korra together felt so unbelievably shoehorned it HURTS. It was like they were just trying get extra funding for another season by claiming they were allies of the LGBT movement...when nothing about their entire show had any indication of that being the case.
I’ll say this; I think more about the legend of Korra than the legend of aang. I think of Zaher, I think of amon, I’ve pushed season 2 oooout of my head, I think of the world they created from the ruins of the old. I think in parts Korra shined brighter than the last airbender but it was never as consistent.
For me when I watch season 2, I think of the Dark spirits in season 2 as "corrupted" spirits, they are literally infected with the Darkness by an outside force, this is why they look completely different from Spirits like Heibei and the Ocean Spirit when they were Dark Spirits, in that they were just supremely pissed off.
I actually hope that Korra gets to act as a mentor for the next Avatars mission. Wouldn't that be something to see her in a role as a spirit where she can show that she's learned from the past but she still has parts of her personality that we can recognize?
I watched the Legend of Korra for the first time last year, after being a huge ATLA fan since I was a kid. I had avoided it for a long time because of the negative reputation it had. I wish I hadn’t have watched it. I was left utterly disappointed and wish I could’ve liked it, really I wish I could. Her whole character and selfishness really made the show all about her rather than other people she was supposed to be serving and protecting as the avatar. Such a shame, her character had so much potential. I didnt think I could dislike a series more than people disliked the first ATLA movie.
The difference between ATLA and TLOK is: ATLA is for everybody TLOK is not for everybody Simple. I enjoyed LOK and she became my best avatar. 👌 I also like Aang thats why i dont argue with Korra haters. because ill need to challenge their love for aang which would be wrong because i love aang too
Personally, I think Korra dropped the ball hard. Take away the fact that every character aside from Tenzin were underbaked and unmemorable, the story was just subpar at best. It showed potential, but despite trying to tackle darker themes, it manages to deliver them in a very juvenile way, and by far its biggest cardinal sin was trying to explain the magic behind the bending. Thats exactly the reason people didn't like Star Wars Phantom Menace. Even the villains, which the fans swear is the best part are the most unerbaked cookie-cutter villains you could ever make. Sure they were intimidating, they had a personality, but they didn't have character.
I’ve said this multiple times, but despite how many times people say that the show is garbage, provide good reasons why that I can side with, I can’t bring myself to genuinely dislike the show. I guess all I can say is that the show is a mess, but it’s my mess.
I remember really liking Korra when I first saw it, and then I started absolutely hating it a few years later, but now my view on it is just sorta “Meh”. It’s not the worst thing in the world. It just had a lot of potential that I felt the writers didn’t capitalize on.
Good video as always, but I take issue with the claim that Amon & the Equalists are intended as a direct critique of communism. I feel like this gets thrown around a lot, and while they're certainly a revolutionary group, and reference communist iconography, the bender/nonbender divide is such a specific concept to the Avatar universe that I really doubt it's intended to just be a direct allegory for communism, especially since the only real character that's a member of the bourgeoisie (Hiroshi) is firmly an Equalist.
To me, TLOK is actually a gem and there is no need to compare it with ATLA, because from my part, the only thing they have in common is the world (bending, nations, etc) and other than that they are completely different. Korra is an adult series and the protagonists are older as the ones in ATLA, going through early adulthood and their 20s. As a person who has had therapy before in my life, its completely understandable from Korra to evolve but get back to her default behavior when things get bad (say the recrutement of the ignorant airbender). Team avatar from ATLA were early teens who lived together and spent every moment together, factors that strongly contributed to their more rapid changes and evolution. As an adult myself, I have noticed that sometimes pain and suffering is enough for people to bond. You may not have had the most intimate interactions with certain individuals, however the fact that you both went through a tough life experience will always connect you, which is why I believe the team remained loyal to Korra, even if they had nothing to benefit from. Its the true differences in friendship dynamics that escalate in various ways as we age that separate LOK from ATLA and even though I recognise its flaws and parts I dont quite enjoy, it still remains one of my all time favorite series. Thank you for the excellent piece of work, Gold man!
I'm a huge fan of TLOK, and I would just like to pin point one thing I noticed. One of the first scenes we see Korra as a kid, her outfit is a very very light blue. Over the seasons, her outfit is getting darker and darker, which could signify how she went from the innocent child, to a person who's growing and experiencing the reality and pain of being the Avatar. It could show the amount of pain and mistakes she wents through and does
I liked the characters from korra for the most part, but I didn't fall in love with them like I did with O.G team avatar. I really felt like even when korra was at her most powerful she just seemed very lack luster as an avatar. Aang even at the age of 12 with no one to guide him at the start of the series felt more competent than korra even though she had basically 17 years of training with the best teachers the world had to offer before the story even starts.
A lot of the issues you pointed out in the series is one of the main reasons why I just could never really get into the legend of Korra. I loved the idea of a sequel where we got to see the Avatar after aang and when I heard what type of person Korra was going to be I loved it, but I genuinely felt like the writers fumbled the ball so bad. Season 2 is a prime example of a hard fumble.
Team Korra was terrible. Bolin was incredibly annoying most of the time, Mako was bland and a buzzkill, and Asami was just kind of there. All were loyal to Korra when it came time to do battle, I’ll give them that. But they never felt like a cohesive unit. I always thought it’d have been better to age Jinora up to somewhere around Korra’s age. That friendship would’ve made more sense to me. They’d be living together, been training partners, etc. I also think, since Jinora read so much and was obviously a brain, they could’ve given her some sort of engineering ingenuity, akin to Great-Uncle Sokka. Like maybe Jinora could’ve designed the wing suits we see in Season 4, and thusly contributing something pretty great to the airbending art, is how she gets her mastery tattoos.
Bolin is probably much closer to Kora than Mako ever was. Bolin sorta took a step as a pseudo Earth Bending teacher to Kora. It makes sense for him to tag along. Mako literally has no role in the group, and I agree, he shouldn't have been a part of the Team Kora, but he was probably kept due to Bolan. Bolin is literally the only reason for him to continue following. Asami is there as Kora's emotional support. She shouldn't be following closely like she actually does throughout the series, but a better method to include her would have been to use letters between her and Kora to build that intimate relationship as Kora and her describing what is happening between them. Maybe when Kora finds herself lost, we could see Asami visiting her to help her through a tough time, but soon needs to leave for her business. The only role I see Mako feeling is being the common sense of the group.
Honestly I think TLOK is as good as TLA. In fact I think there are several things Korra did better then Airbender most notably the villains, Korra's personal growth and the romance (after season 2). While Zuko and Azula are great I think that Ozai, Zhao and Long Feng are pretty generic Saturday Morning Cartoon villains. Ozai in particular I feel really fails as a villain because he didn't do all that much. No really think about it, he didn't wipe out the Air Nomads, he didn't betray either Aang or Roku, he didn't hunt Aang relentlessly across the whole world, didn't shoot Aang in the back at Ba Sing Se and didn't even kill his father to take the throne. He did nothing to Aang, Katara, Sokka or Toph so when the final battle between him and Aang arrives it's not personal for either or them which is the real reason why I think the show added the whole "Aang not wanting to kill Ozai" plot point because without that there is no emotional stakes for Aang in the finale. Not to say Ozai sucks as a villain as his abuse towards his children makes him someone we want to see brought down but in terms of his relationship to the main character he has nothing. It's nothing personal for Aang or Ozai it's just their duty. Most of Korra's adversaries either make it personal by all of them saying "The world has no need of you. We are here to replace you." Korra has a much more interesting relationship with her villains then Aang does with most of his whom all seem to be more adversaries to Zuko and Azula. I like that Korra actually gets a chance to talk to most of her enemies instead of just always fighting them. She sees their point of view and later takes those views to heart and tries to bring about the world her enemies wanted WITHOUT the needless suffering. And that's the other thing, Korra remains the focus of the show throughout its run. For whatever reason Aang is basically reduced to secondary supporting character in Fire where he has less screen time, dialogue and overall impact on the plot compared to Zuko who basically becomes the main character of the series. Even in Sozin's Comet Zuko has more dialogue, more impact on the plot and more overall growth and development. Aang in Fire is really only the focus for about 5 or 6 episodes and he often has to share the focus with other characters, again, most notably Zuko. Korra is the reason the villains are doing what they're doing, of the 52 episodes of the series Korra is the focus or a major driving force for the stories for about 44 of those episodes. And 12 of those are from Balance. Finally the romance which while bad in the first two seasons saw a massive improvement in season 3 and 4. Honestly I never much cared for any ship in Airbender outside of ones involving Sokka and even then it was a pretty shallow romance. Same goes for the first half of Korra with some of the worst romances in series with Makorra and Masami. But with the second half we got Bolin and Opel, Kai and Jinora, and of course Korrasami. While it's hard to appreciate today it has to be remembered that Korrasami was a MASSIVELY popular ship starting around the halfway point of Season 3 and while there is now more open depiction of LGBT in Western Animation it just wasn't a thing that could happen. So yeah Korrasami was and IS important but besides that they are a really engaging couple. I love that they didn't fall in love after just one episode like literally every other couple in this series, instead they took their time got to know each other and grew to develop romantic feelings for each other naturally over the course of the series. A lot of tried to undercut the relationship these days but a lot of them are using modern day standards against a time when what we got was seen as groundbreaking at the time. To have two main characters of the same gender fall in love and actually show that in the show itself just didn't happen at the time. Sure all they did was hold hands but go back and watch reactions to this moment, some people broke down, crying tears of joy while others were to stunned to say anything. Kataang is a run of the mile "will they won't they" romance with a pairing that kinda gets worse as the series goes on (the fact that the two spend most of the last half of Fire arguing with one another and saying neither of them understand the other which goes unresolved at the end of the series does not help). And that's reflected in the numbers, Korrasami is the most popular ship in the fandom even beating out popular fan-preferred ship Zutara while Kataang is usually at the least popular and the comics did nothing to help this pairing. There are other things I would like to talk about but those are my main thoughts as to what I feel Korra did better then Airbender.
@@adeptdamage3669 Focusing on the second point, did you watch the show? It's made clear that the heroes AGREE with the ideas of the villains views just not their methods. Toph flat out states that the villains have noble goals that should be seriously considered and not dismissed. You want a straw-man look to Master Pakku, he is there just to be a sexist jerk to Katara who is only "Right" because he has the power to back himself up and his ideas are meant to be 100% wrong because Katara is in the right. THAT is a straw-man, he is there to be proven wrong with nothing to backup his sexist claims and is defeated by him seeing the necklace he was going to give to Katara's Grandmother and Katara just saying that his views on women are wrong. And Asami if is a nothing character then why did she become so popular BEFORE she became Korra's girlfriend. I was there at the start of the series and Asami exploded into popularity halfway through the first season and remained popular. Asami has considerable depth and nuance and if you want I can cover every bit of it because again, Korra fangirl here, I can do this all day.
@@Winter-The-MasqueradeExcept the fact that TLOK just cannot handle the ideologies of it's villians properly. The resolution of both season 1 and season 2 is not a rebuttal of the ideologies of the villians, but the villians themselves being defeated by plot and that's it. Amon's name is exposed, and in season 2, the Civil war plotline is actually a ruse for mustache twirling villiany. And no, Asami doesn't have "considerable depth and nuance". Season 1 already had her occupy the less interesting position of a character she could have taken, and in season 2 she is nothing but the third person in the shitty love triangle and transport. That's all she is. And in the third season, Mako, Bolin and Asami might as well not even be there. Like, please, Toph in ATLA was more interesting of a character than Asami is, and Toph has easily the least arc among all of the Gaang.
One of the most impressive things to me in the legend of Korra, is that each seasons opposition or villains somehow one up the last. Each victory over a villain makes you wonder “Okay she just beat up this big baddy, now WHO THE HECK COULD CONTEND HER NOW?” They always find a way to make a real, threatening villain.
I absolutely LOVE tlok I think people always try to compare it to atla but the writers did such a great job at separating it from aang’s story, I was afraid that the second show would be repetitive but they introduced us to a completely different era, completely different avater and a show that feels just different enough. Nickelodeon did anything to sabotage this show but it still turned out WAY better than most shows targeted for children
I feel like I need to add that comparing between atla and tlok is pretty much the whole point and im not saying that we shouldn’t do that, what im trying to say is that avatar the last airbander was so much more than just a cartoon you know? It shaped an entire generation and inspired so many good stories, I just dont think its fair to expect korra to have the same impact
Going back to Book 4, I realized that Toph is right about one thing about Korra’s enemies: people like Amon(equality for all) Zaheer (freedom from corrupt/oppressive governments and monarchs) and Kuvira (having no leadership is a bad thing and stability to the Earth Kingdom is important )really think they are the heroes of their own stories. While they are right, Korra’s enemies are totally out of balance and they have taken their political ideologies way too far. They are not your typical baddies as Firelord Ozai or Azula. However, taking ideologies to extreme lengths is basically what happened to Firelord Sozin before and during the 100 year war.
Really great video, watched it fully and enjoyed every second. Every point was very well made and the structure is neatly put together. Now onto some thoughts, i feel like they messed up writing raava and vaatu, as an idea i think its perfect that the avatar is half spirit, and the plotline made the avatar cycle and reincarnation stuff make sense, the only issue there is, is as you said they mentioned raava to be an all good spirit, while personally i saw that raava wasnt as peaceful as she should’ve been if she was really representing all good, they should’ve went into that way more. The krew is barely given any chances to progress as you said but i feel like korrasami was written well, it was slow with barely any moments but i think thats realistic or atleast from my experiences. Also i think zaheer kept the airbenders hostage just so they wouldn’t resist, the rest of the black lotus had to be present while they poisoned korra because she obviously would be destructive in the avatar state when its out of control, you even see minghua ready for fighting while the poison was distributed, so the airbenders had to stay out of the way I think thats the reason they werent released immediately. As for season 4, the beginning was perfect but it lost me mid season, they barely dug into the motives of kuvira which could’ve been great. So yeah overall i agree with almost everything you said and this video was such a breath of fresh air especially when everyone wants to hate on tlok and “fix” it subjectively trying to make it exactly like Atla. The two are meant to be different and tbh korra has the best character development in both series, some might debate its zuko but i feel like korras development was more clear to see. She is a good character, and the entire show is good even when its bad. Honestly if korra was released immediately after atla maybe people would be more nostalgic towards it and hate it less.
the irony about the writers attempting to make kuvira an irredeemable racist, fascist is they also tried to make her redeemable. i am supposed to sympathize and feel sorry for a despicable person because her parents abandoned her and she cried a bit? wtf?! she literally placed people in concentration camps based off their ethnic identities
Honestly, as a European I simply do not get this very typical US American obsession with "communism". The equalist movement never gave me communist vibes, I legitimately heard of it being an allegory for communism here first. To me, it gives much more French revolution vibes. But most importantly, the narrator perfectly and beautifully lays it out right in front of us (and themself) that the communism allegory does not work. Because it just isn't there. Not everything "evil" and potentially socially and societally critical or status quo questioning must automatically be something stemming from communism or socialism. My own hypothesis why the US to this day obesses so much over this obscure and invisible mythological danger figure threatening their great great society (which in itself is basically a form of a medieval oligarchy, highly dominated by superstition and other forms of religion over scientific knowledge and suffers from vast social inequality and also injustice) is that they have not yet overcome their own ideological brainwashing from back during the cold war. In pluribus unum was lost for in God we trust which goes directly against their own constitution of the nation being a society free from ideological oppression and dogma, but also from my own High School experiences in the states I would furthermore suggest that this indoctrination into black and white ways of thinking, this brainwashed ideology of " USA = great, good, Christian, free vs. Communism/Socialism (Russia/China/Cuba) = evil, poor, godless chained but also trying to infiltrate the great American way and threatening their way of life " still continues to this day where obscure shadow figures and looming doom, death and destruction by the hand of this non-distinct dangerous enemy ideology are put into children's heads without them ever questioning the validity of these concepts. Us in Europe, especially us in Germany, have also had our very own (and probably even more significant) hands on experiences with communist and/or socialist forms of government but still even those that grew up beyond the former wall, nor us who grew up in former West Germany know this fear mongering ideology or have this intrinsic fear of these vague concepts. The bottom line is, both socialism and communism are economic political theories resulting in types of governments, just the same as with capitalism, especially in its purest form like it's to this day practiced in the US. They are all forms of ideological extremes on opposite ends of a theoretical construct which in this belief is linear, however scholars have long reached the conclusion that especially when it comes to forms of government, economic systems and especially societal constructs it's a spectrum of different theoretical lines being applied simultaneously, varying individually by the degree of expression of every single component. So long story short: I don't get this US American obsession with communism and not everything has to forcefully be pushed into a communist mold just for the ongoing narrative's sake even though it doesn't fit.
African American here. Was looking for a comment like this. Although it hurts my heart the jabs you take at communisms expense, I completely agree with you. Very strange way of interpreting the world Americans have cultivated for themselves. We well and truly have NOT made it past cold war thinking. Its sad
Is it possible that they make a LoK remake? The one where everything from the characters to the circumstances were fixed? Such as Sokka not dying early or even having an episode that shows what happened to him.
ATLA crafted a better story from a simpler premise. Korra gave us a more complex world with more nuanced villains, but was more poorly executed and therefore is remembered as the worse show. It sure doesn't help that Korra wasn't even intended as a full show at first, and had no long-term arc until the second half of the show, whereas ATLA was obviously made with a long-term plan from the start.
9 months late but I really like how you mentioned the stupidity of having Ravaa and Vaatu be good and bad and allowing for a 'dark avatar' to be a thing. It would have made so much more thematic sense for Wan to absorb/merge with both Ravaa and Vaatu and become the living embodiment of balance between yin and yang. You can even tie this into Korra rediscovering her bending ability, that she has to find this connection once again to Ravaa and Vaatu by travelling into the spirit world. You could even make Unalaq's whole plan be to find them and merge with them first and become the new Avatar and use the Avatar's powers for his own selfish, conquest reasons. May still be stupid but I'd honestly prefer it to the Dark Avatar Kaiju ending.
I watched ATLA as a kid and i had a true watching of it 3 years ago. A year later I tried watching Korra and it isn’t a masterpiece like avatar is but mannnn it was a great watch. It is worth watching it. Season 2 was ehhhhhh and season 1 is just solid but season 3 and 4 was greattt
I think the legend of Korra really resonated with being a good show in terms of connecting with folks who had those issues (depression, PTSD, fear of living in unstable environments). In terms of story continuation, I honestly think season two just wrecked any sort of recovery. It was…a season that absolutely destroyed the continuity that was ATLA. That isn’t to say that I had an issue with the art, because I didn’t! I loved seeing the southern water tribe grow into a beautiful city! Story wise it just disintegrated the story ball. The legend of Korra showed us the struggles of a teenager/young adult avatar. It showed us complexities of society that teens/young adults struggle to comprehend. The last two seasons were very much well done. It made me feel uncomfortable seeing Korra just suffer through chronic illness, and I think, by doing so, has really left an impactful mark as the viewer.
I watched this show as a kid but as I got older I forgot what it was like so seeing all the bad responses to the show had me skeptical about rewatching LOK after finishing up ATLA but now that I’m watching it its actually not that bad just not as good still watchable not binge worthy tho imo
I always find if kind of funny when i see peopel say that nobody likes LoK because it has like an 80% at least and anyone who has actually watched the show likes it
I love atla for the impact it had on my childhood but I love korra mora because she’s more relatable and she’s trying to figure out her place in the world when everyone is saying she’s not needed anymore. It’s a masterpiece. Korra alone is the best episode in my opinion of the whole avatar franchise.
I didn’t really get into this universe until I was in my teens. Korra is way more relatable to me and her show means more to me. When I was at a low point so was Korra. She was an avatar that I needed to see much like I needed to see Superman stay with the girl on the ledge or Spider-man giving a young boy his mask to make the kid feel brave.
What an excellent breakdown, I agree with a lot but not all but you raised excellent points that didn’t even occur to me, Season 4 is so real and is my favorite over the great 3. The withdrawal, losing yourself and harming yourself and the haunt were very excellent and if they ever adapt this to Netflix I hope they explore this is even more maturity and adult themes, especially because Avatar Kuruk lived such a debacherous life it suggests, to me at least, there’s more to her getting lost and reflecting her beat up and destroyed was a great way to show the ways we hurt ourselves that a kids show ultimately has to be careful about
Also enjoyed it a lot more than ATLA, Aang is a bit comical and unrealistic to me but I think the world was so terrible ultimately he’s the perfect response and the perfect person to handle that time and conflict. Korra was a real person. We’ve been Korra (maybe not the creator of the video) or dealt with a Korra, and ultimately we all will share some kind of path Korra had. Aang was a bit like a Superman or something like that, an unrealistic depiction of a perfect hero of sorts.
I agree with most of what you said here. I really wish they had done something different with Season 2. It damages the series and the lore of the universe in irrevocable ways. If season 2 was decent would have a lot less to criticize.
Why during these video essays nobody talks about how freaking AMAZING the animation & fight choreography is in LOK?! Like am I the only one whose mind is blown and sometimes even dare to say is leagues above ATLA? Kora’s fight with Kavira at the end alone is like one of the most beautiful looking, intense, and well constructed fight sequence in western animation tv in modern times.
I will admit as much as i love legend of korra it did really fumble the bag with team avatar like they never really felt like friends more so a acquaintance. Also i agree with you korrasami is the most forced ship like i can see korra still being friends with mako but I'll never understand how asami became romantically interested in korra like i can see her forgiving korra and becoming frenemies but romance i absolutely refuse to beleieve that.
I know that the show isn't perfect and it had some absolutely massive shoes to fill following the Last Airbender and I think that, a few missteps aside (like with the romantic drama), I think that Legend of Korra is a worthy sequel to the Last Airbender and it's nice that you can genuinely see Korra become both a better Avatar and a better person as the season's go on.
Tbh I think if Korra was a fire bender she would’ve had a personality that made sense. She’s so hot headed and stubborn which is absolutely NOT like the similar element to air in water but absolutely in fire. It feels weird that the creators wanted her to be entirely different from Aang but she’s also of the element that was as close to air as it could be. It’s why Aang struggled with fire bending so much in the first place (though yes earth is technically the elemental opposite of air the personality opposite usually seems to be fire especially compared to Aang).
Had a roommate 19 years older than me who LOVED the character Korra. The show caters to an older generation who otherwise would never be introduced to Avatar the Last Airbender. I knew another dude 40 years old who prefers Korra to Avatar. I was EXACTLY 12 years old when I saw Aang for the first time after school on Nickolodean. What else was a typical urban kid to do after school? Older people in their late 30's and older love Korra and I believe the writers knew that. They created Korra because, like those older jerk friends I had, they care only for themselves. They are selfish and want to hear only what she wants to hear and if you're not that person, she fights you. I think The Legend of Korra is brilliant because it shows that more people relate with Korra who is a shrewd and problematic person who doesn't recognize her behavior. People 40 ad 50 years old don't like Aang because "it's a kid show" to them. Yet, Korra and her 40 year old fans are the kids. Aang is a better story yes not my point.
ATLA is obviously more well rounded, but we know the writers had more time to create and develop the story. Imo the writing in LoK is sharper and if the writers had more freedom and time to cook it would be even better than ATLA. It did turn out pretty good though despite the network interferences. I prefer LoK, the themes and the characters resonate with me so much more.
Perfect way to describe LoK is that it’s a “flawed gem”. It’s a fun series, but it comes short in many areas. But still it’s a solid 8/10 show in my opinion.
great video man, but i also wanted to hear your opinion on bending and how its changed over the years after the 100 year war, and also what you think about other questionable changes to the bending system
Realistically, i think a big reason why team avatar didnt feel the same here is because of the shortened season length. In ATLA the longer seasons really gave us (and the writers) the opportunity to glimpse into the lives and intricacies of these characters by going on sidequests and having thematically rich stories and conflicts that gave us chances to learn about these characters and watching them grow together. Meanwhile in Korra the character depth takes a backseat to all the bombastic storytelling and world building they wanted to do with the symbolism and ideologies they explored in each season. I think its no surprise that things really came together in season 3 when we finally have built up some sort of understanding and affection for these characters. If Korra had been given atleast 4 more episodes per season i think it would’ve made a difference, imagine if they had 20+ like avatar. All the time that couldve been spent deepening their characters instead of having to make bad story decisions by cramming them in whenever they got the chance and adding characterizations when they could and not building them up like they should. It just makes it seem out of place and i believe Korra wouldve been on par with ATLA if it had the same opportunity it did.
While I think that played a role in it I think it’s just the different approach they took to the story. The last Airbender is very character driven while Legend of Korra is more narrative driven. If legend of korra was more character driven I believe they could’ve done it. I seen shows with similar runtimes be able to do it also.
I disagree with the idea that Korra lacks arcs it’s just not where you 😮would typically expect to find one. instead of the characters and new team avatar having a very deep and powerful arc it’s instead given too the public and the very world around them. I’d give an example or two but honestly I’m drunk and want to go back to chilling so I won’t. But I do suggest going and watching the show with this mental framework and you will see exactly what I’m talking about.
To be honest Korra getting her bending back at the end of season 1 doesn't bother me because Amon technically wasn't really taking bending away he was using blood bending to chi block people if they had properly explained it I don't think there would have been as much of an issue. The thing is if they had left it blocked it would have been Aang's journey all over again when she already knows the other elements as well as her arc for that season was already completed so I don't know for sure if it would have been as interesting as you may think.
Also Vaatu and Ravaa being described as “good vs evil” was the first mistake. Describing them as “order and chaos” would’ve made more sense, and could’ve been used as a better narrative thread for the season.
That is the case though. Vaatu will continue to grow within Ravaa and by extension Korra. Vaatu wants to bring about centuries of chaos.
@@caydengarvey657right. In future reincarnations the writers should explore the Avatar's morals and balance with Vaatu being inside them.
I also like the fan theory that once Vaatu is born, the Avatar would be twins (light and dark), it could create a very interesting dynamic.
Another possible use would have been that the avatar has BOTH Ravaa and Vaatu. Both good and evil lies inside the avatar and is the struggle to maintain balance that leads the avatar to be as powerful as they are.
@@icarue993That could work better if they were order and chaos and maybe when the first Avatar defeated chaos order became to powerful and he needed to take the power of both of them.
And maybe Unalock wanted to become a new Avatar with only order rather than just an evil Avatar
@@ottoww289 or maybe they take different extremes with each iteration. Granted, chaos and order fit both Aang and Kora. I'd argue that Aang is more chaotic at the beginning, with Korra being more Lawful, granted, her "laws" but still.
I watched the Legend of Korra for the first time last year, after being a huge ATLA fan since I was a kid. I had avoided it for a long time because of the negative reputation it had. I wish I had given it a chance sooner, but I'm sort of glad that I watched it as an adult. I feel like the themes and Korra's character resonated with me more as a young adult trying to figure things out.
I couldn't agree more!
No korra is trash and will always be trash
Same! Just finished Korra after trying to start watching it like three times over the years, and I watched ATLA like 12 times, and it was quite the journey
@@ShadowDashhNo one asked you
@@ShadowDashhyou are trash
I think a big factor is Team Avatar basically lived together, every hour of everyday. They were like family
Meanwhile, it feels like Korra’s gang only came about because they were vaguely similar to the previous series’ main characters and the creators rested on their laurels.
@@christopherbennett5858 And its some miracle of god that they are somehow still friends after the whole Korra romance schism.
@@Loppedofflemons The fact that they’re friends after one of them broke up with Korra, got with Asami and pretended to be Korra’s boyfriend when she got amnaesia and neither Bolin or Asami stepped in…
That’s not a miracle. That’s something the writers made for themselves to keep this musical chairs BS going.
About the short cuts you mentioned that the writers took in season 4:
the writers had to sacrifice one episode (which became the recap episode) because of sudden budget cuts by Nickelodeon.
Seriously, Nickelodeon did they best to sabotage TLOK at every turn, not realizing at all what they have with the Avatar Universe.
Yeah it was either make a recap episode or fire animators. They chose not to fire people.
I would have loved Korra so much if it wasn't for Nick. Having a known number of episodes and having more time to develop Korasami (I think back then, same sex couples were a nono in tv) would have made the series maybe even better than ATLA. A well developed cast tackling the mature themes they tackled would have been amazing.
Yet again... I was not super happy with Dragon Prince. I feel Korra S3-4 were better than Dragon Prince S1-3.
@@icarue993 Same sex couples weren't exactly unheard of back then, but the issue for me is that they focused WAY too much on the romance in Korra. Sure, the original series had bits of it here and there and some touching moments, but it was never at the forefront of any plot. At the end of the day, budget cuts or no, bad is bad, and the romance in the show was God awful. Korra bounced partners like nobodies business and it was annoying.
I disagree while Nick's meddling certainly didn't help Korra as a show isn't that good. The characters don't feel like friends, character growth seems to be all over the place with Korra literally learning the same damn lesson every season. The main relationship entirely underdeveloped and a lot of them feeling very one note.
@@sirnetflix7162agreed. I also think her falling in love with Asami is forced because we don’t really see it happen.
I think something that was awesome about Korra that sets it apart from ATLA is just how intimidating the villains she faces are. Aang always held back when fighting and only really had to go all out against ozai and sometimes azula for the most part, and Amon, Zahir, and Kuvira being arguably the best benders of their respective type was a great thematic way to challenge the Korra as the Avatar, a person usually seen physically unparalleled
Edit: my phone always auto corrects Korra’s name to Korea
Yeah aside from azula or ozai none of aang villains were really threatening and I never really felt like aang life was in danger but korra her villains especially for a nickelodeon show were very menacing and scary.
@@dannyphantom3090Ozai himself was very underwhelming. Azula is amazing though.
yeah. But Amon was wasted as fck. They didnt even had to fight him. Amon took a punch from Korra then ran away without a fight and “oh brother i love you so much”… like fck off thats lame and out of the blue.
Ozai was not a great villain. Because we've never seen him acting. The only time he fought before the last fight with Aang, his lightning had been redirected by Zuko (who also ostensibly didn't fear him in a non-bending fight), and we know Iroh thought a fight between them would have gone 50-50, so he doesn't give the impression of being such a Juggernaut.
One of the reasons why the final agni-kai is so much more satisfying, besides the psychological drama of the fight between brothers, is because we've always seen Azula as invincible.
Unfortunately LOK villains lack in the other department. They never grow beyond being cartoonishly "bad guys". Their ideas may have had some merit, but they are only extremists. In this, all of them are "Ozai". While, in ATLA, team Zuko and Team Azula were part of the family. You knew MANY things about their lives, and why they acted like they did. Even Jet was written better than the best villain of LOK.
The worse is in the first book. Where the chi-blockers are only an army of faceless minions, led by a masked guy that only in the final episode is revealed to be a never heard before brother of another character (who was revealed to be a bloodbender, son of anoter bloodbender we've never heard before, three episodes before). It cant' be shallower than that. Why should we care of those guys?
Yeah, the villains in TLOK go so hard. Just a shame the main character is so unlikable and garbage.
I kinda like the odd friendship between Bolin and Asami. They hang out with each other the most outside of Mako and Korra respectively, the people they tend to get paired with most frequently. It's not anything super deep, but it provides some nice contrast between their upbringings and leads to some humorous moments
I think that was the closest to toph and sokka that we got
LoK is certainly flawed, but I still love so much of it. Season 2 is the only one that I would considered truly subpar, but Season 3 and 4 stepped up quite a bit. Even with Season 2, there's some good stuff, the animation in general, Iroh's scenes, getting to see more of the spirit world. While part of this may be because of the shows somewhat troubled behind the scenes issues, we still have to take the show as it is.
While it's not as good as Avatar, I still love the show, and think it gets too much hate not only for its mistakes, but partly because so many people were expecting a show just like Avatar and didn't get that.
true. I think the hate comes from tge first two season. I almost stopped watching but i was told the third season is great. So i continoued and season 3 felt like i wacthed ATLA again. It was really great
your reasoning for not including suki makes complete sense and that's the thing; every member of team korra feels like suki. they all have connections to korra but none to each other. they feel like coworkers who are around each other because they happen to work at the same place, not because they actually value each others company
Suki is a member of the team but she is not a protagonist: she didn’t have a character arc, a theme or a narrative role. She was just a cool character that Sokka was dating, and she only joined the last four episodes.
The thing is that the 5 members of the Gaang are the main characters, in Korra they aren't the only main characters. Tenzin, Lin, Suyin and even Varrick are just as important. It's just a different show, with different dynamics a different focus.
@@LuisGustavoSOIf your main character has less importance to a story than Suki then you have a useless character.
@@Rambrus0 ? Which main character I mentioned has less importance than Suki?
@@LuisGustavoSO Bolin? or how his name is spelled. He only was useful in season 3. Other than that he didnt do anything remotely important, otherthan beeing a not funny Sokka
I always thought that Korra cries at the end of season 3 because of the resemblance of Jinora and Aang. Like Korra seeing Aang getting congrats, while she has failed over and over and will never accomplished the respect that Aang did.
not a bad take
What 😂😂😂
What did aang accomplish lol
Fool
@@OBITO7098I mean....he did end the 100 year war. And contribute to the creation of a whole new nation
As I got older, I resonated with Korra's inability to move forward from the attempted poisoning, as she dragged her feet through life, holding onto resentment and feeling weak. The idea we're not the same after trauma is true, but we can still relearn strength. Thinking you can't be strong again is precisely what holds you back.
I mean, she kept getting reset every season, so her being poisoned doesn't mean anything.
That’s so true, that why I loved TLOK. I mean.. have you even seen a main character/superhero in a wheel chair? That was powerful. My favorite season is number 4 because of the healing process Korra goes through
@@lainiwakura1776 someone who hasn't watched the show comes to give an opinion? Wow
@@lainiwakura1776 🤡
Cant relearn strength if you never where strong to begin with, tho (like me)
The first time I saw ‘The Legend of Korra’ on Nickelodeon many years ago, I wasn’t a big fan because it felt different. But now, as an adult and rewatching the entire series, I can genuinely say I love the show.
At 58:32 You said Korra instead of Kuvira, which is funny since the writers wanted them to be alike, not just in name but in personality, Kuvira is a lot like Korra in season 2, but now Korra isnt like herself in that time.
Damn time flys by... how has it been 10 year since korra. I remember being super excited to see a follow up show of avatar finally getting released
i was literally four years old when it came out but somehow i agree with you. i remember being excited to watch the new avatar episodes like it was yesterday but now I'm in high school and disappointed in the new live action adaptation. time is weird.
It’s a actually a pretty good show on its own. The problem is it’s hard for people not to compare it to ATLA which I understand but it’s a completely different avatar with a different personality in a different era. I’ll acknowledge the writing isn’t as good but the fight scenes and the choreography are amazing and it has some really great moments. It’s not one cohesive story like ATLA, each season has its own story. I’ve always loved the show having watched it for the first time as a kid and even more now as an adult. I try to separate it from ATLA and not get too hung up on the comparisons.
good point. ATLA is one of the best shows of all time. Just because TLoK is not in that conversation doesn't mean it isn't good
It also murders the ATLA canon…
I feel like if they did just three things then I wouldn’t hate it as bad. 1 character development, i feel like the characters just don’t change and it felt like if they do it’s a temporary change that doesn’t last. 2 character relationships, if they gave more time with the characters actually doing something other than solely driving plot then the show would immediately be better to me and solve some problems others have with it. 3 not destroying the link to past avatars, past avatars are the most important to me because there are so many stories and wisdom that can be told through them and they are fan favorites and cutting them out of the story felt like the writers didn’t like the previous series and wanted a wall between the new show and previous lore of the world
@@oreohunter7798In what way? For the most part it improved the canon
@Name-uv6kzthat doesn't really murder the canon, it literally parallels the way that our own world developed after 70 years
The idea of Vaatu and Raava isn't even a bad idea and could have played into the themes of everything not being so black and white like you said. Having their be two different spirits each representing a difference in role and personality could have also been a great way to both subvert expectations and helped with Korra's arc of learning that not everything is black and white. When Korra meets Raava and Vaatu for the first time of course sides with Raava because she's supposed to be the embodiment of all good but after working with her for a bit she has a realization that Raava's methods are flawed regardless of how well intention it might be. This would also be a great way to trick the audience inot thinking this is just going to be a classic story between good vs evil but then turns into something more complex. Then she meets Vaatu and has realization that while Vaatu's methods might be cruel and unjust they are a necessary evil and do have some positive outcomes. After working with both of them this could also help in trying to find a balance between the Northern and Southern Water Tribes. And in the final battle between Raava and Vaatu they both try to convince Korra to choose a side but rather than doing that she finds some kind of middle ground that keeps them both of them in balance.
"Good and evil are simplistic views,instead see things as Order and Chaos."
But no lol "dArK aVaTaR"
That's exactly how it did play out and you've listened to too many midwits on RUclips headcannon something that was never in the show
Damn, it’s been 10 years?
I’m old asf
closer to 9 technically but 10 years later sounds better
Well it's been 12 years since it came out but almost 10 years since the last season came out!
I actually really like Korra, not as much as ATLA but I still quite enjoy it. I found season 1, 3, and 4 to be good but I really didn't like season 2, mostly cus I don't like the villain or the main conflicted. I feel like the world in Korra is actually a good progression to the world in ATLA and I love most of the villains. I honestly feel like the only bid down side of legend of Korra is the main group. As you said in your video of ATLA, the relashionships between every single character were very well developed but In Korra the four of them are never together except for when they first meet, plus the whole love triangle really destroyed the group dynamic
I agree about season 2, but I did really enjoy the two part story about Avatar Wan and the whole origins of bending. And we got to see Iron again. So even the weakest season had some bright spots.
No one like 2 is bad n dumb
@@stewhv94 I like Avatar Wan and the way the world used to be, and I even like that there was an entity for light and darkness. I just don't like the whole final fight to be good vs bad, especially after the whole point of ATLA is that it's much more complicated than that
This is exactly how I feel!
Amon is a critique of populism and the cult of personality not communism. He doesn’t care about economics or redistribution or the idea of a stateless society. He even teams up with the richest man in Republic City which is not what a communist would do but rather what a populist would do. Mustache Man in WW2 is a great example of this as he had the support of many of the richest men and women in Germany at the time.
I was trying to figure out a way to explain how Amon is definitely not communist, and you nailed it. Amon very much aligns himself with capital, and the focus on the non-bender/bender dynamic over a class based politics makes it feel more opportunist. Amon definitely uses fair left wing critique of the bending dominated government similar to how the Nazis would use socialist messaging in their propaganda, but by the end of the season, it’s shown that Amon, like the Nazis, did not care about that inherit inequality in the world, he just wanted that to benefit him and his cronies. If Amon is a communist, he’s a very lousy communist
THANK YOU. I was confused at the communism comparison.
For some reason, people are focusing on communism, and blaming capitalism for society's hardship.
It's some large corporate capitalism, not all capitalism.
EXACTLY, the way this writer is so wrong about what he's talking about is a reflection of how western education has failed us
@@ZancoIntel We call that Cronyism.
@@ZancoIntel I mean any ideology that places capital over people or outcomes is fundamentally flawed. Corporatism just allows more people to see beyond the curtain. But a system that values wealth above all else will always fail
I really like your interpretation on the end of season 3 because when i 1st watched i was also confused on why she's crying i just assumed because of s4 she was reflecting on how all her villains have damaged her and there's even a edited clip on RUclips showing that.
But yeah it does make sense korra loves being the avatar and even though it wasn't tenzin intention he basically said we don't need you.
it cuts deep!
I think too it's probably a combination of a lot of huge conflicting emotions for Korra. She's sad that she's not needed while being happy for jinora while also in pain from what she just experienced. She has this almost wistful smile that makes me think it's a little bit more than just straight sadness.
To be fair, Korra couldn't develop relationships because of the limitations in episode number. Last Airbender had so many "filler" episodes in order to do that.
yeah but that still doesnt explain things like certain things that were not foreshadowed at all, just happen for the sake of the plot. Atla was well tooght out, a masterclass in writing. While Korra was for the most part mid. Its crazy that the creators were the same. Also it doesnt explain why you resonate with Atla from episode 3, while you need 2 seasons of Korra to not have a Korra carries everything feeling
@Eh......... thats not an argument.
atla has only one filler episode tho- The tales of Ba Sing Se
Filler? ATLA has only 2 filler episodes.
@@TRW98 you guys are acting like filler is always a bad thing
I really love the Legend of Korra. Especially because how it adresses depression.
I wish there had been more nuance with Korra in season 2 because I actually really liked that Korra had a bitch era. She was a teenager unlike Aang so having her be shity for a bit is great in theory. She has uncontrollable hormons and insane amounts of power so there is a fun dynamic to play with there, I just don't think the writers achieved that unfortunately.
Great video thanks for all the effort! Gonna go do a Korra rewatch now 😊
and even after the show she never gets better she stays a bitch
Bolin has a pretty strong relationship with everyone on the team. Asami and bolin spend lots of time together and even have a convo about mako amd korra. What do you define a deep conversation. Lol also tenzin undergoes a drastic character arc realizing he is not his father nor is meant to be. He had to seperate himself from who he thought he should be.
Verrick aka Tony stark was my favorite character by the end
he did a lot of bad shit, but he's still hilarious
@@thegoldman25 DO THE THING
@@thegoldman25allegedly
In my opinion, the first villain of Amon and his thing isn’t about communism, because communism is is an economic stature. Well, there might be subtle hints of the wealth. It doesn’t help that one of the wealthiest people in the world is on the sides of the communist. It’s more like a subtle coup of the status quo but also they need to show more of the oppression to fully get the message across that this is, a rebellion of sorts
very good points
I have seen so many reviews of this series where they call it mediocre or terrible with good bits.
I am not a critic like others may be I just like content unless it’s not connected or makes sense
Communism absolutely is NOT an economic system. It's a moral 1. They make moral judgement upon those who work hard and struggle to achieve opulence while indulging their worst instincts of jealousy and greed. They praise Cain and they heap moral judgement upon Abel in a sick twisted and disgusting inversion of true morality.
I adored Amon/Noatak. So angry they killed him and tarrlok. I was really hoping he’d b like Zuko or even Kuvira. Good people that made bad decisions and is helped by Korra to heal and redeem
@@christymitchell4763 I can understand that idea but if you try to redeem to many characters it would get boring
Season Two: How great would it have been if Unalaq was increasingly portrayed as a fundamentalist and authoritarian religious type? I mean, that seems to be what the initial concept was? And what if the weird simplistic dualism that creeps in was actually just his interpretation of things-given that fundamentalist religion is generally built on such foundations-that he slowly gets Korra on board with at first, but that she comes to ultimately reject through embracing complexity and dynamic balance.
Like, what sold Vatuu, like Heibai, turned out to be Ravva’s lost partner? Who got angry and confused and needs help? And so the Korra ultimately becomes a more complete Avatar by healing Vatuu and bring them back into dynamic relationship with Ravva and… what do you know, there’s the whole theme of romantic relationships, socio-political relationships, etc. creeping back in! And how about, in such healing, she helps Unalaq see that, while his critiques of commodification and lack of discipline or whatever had a point, he was trying to create a static balance instead of a dynamic one?
And then to pare that storyline with Korra not having her full bending (except maybe while in the Avatar State) and the beginning-which would also justify her being an asshole to everyone and blowing up her relationships-and Unalaq manipulating her into his dualism with the promises you suggest… yeah, that would’ve been solid!
And as an addendum: There is “good” and “evil” per se in East Asian yin/yang based philosophies: Dynamic balance is “good” (think rising a skateboard), while static balance (think balanced scales that never change) or static imbalance is “evil.” You see this play out in, for example, Chinese demonology, in which demons (read: evil spirits) are not inherently evil, but evil by virtue of (usually) static imbalance (and occasionally static balance). This was beautifully exemplified in ATLA, while Korra definitely lost the thread.
I bring this up, however, to call out an issue in your analysis: There also isn’t “morally grey” in East Asian philosophies, either. There are complexities in how dynamic balance plays out (indeed, one of the chief selling points of such philosophies is how they allow space for such complexities), but “morally grey” as a concept relies heavily on the one-dimensional simplicity of understanding ethics and balance in the image of the “scales of justice” or similar concepts. Such one-dimensionality relies on such a dualistic struggle between ontological good and ontological evil, as exemplified in season two of TLoK.
The main differences between the 2 are that ATLA is a character driven story where Korra is a plot driven story.
I wish they had focused more on the characters in Korra, not just the main characters, but also the villians.
This is the real reason people don't like Korra as much as they do ATLA. Because things happen simply because the writers say they do and not because we actively see the characters growing, changing and making decisions. The character's choices are plot devices instead of being built upon the character's growth and individual story.
It's say this is the biggest thing and partly that's exactly why it fails for so many people. When you're known for doing amazing character arcs and analysis it's really hard to watch it be sidelined for the growth of only the main character [who even then focuses heavily on a lot of flaws that don't often get shown the better side]. I think personally LOK also suffers from having so many characters and their dynamics be at the focus without always trying to do more for it; it's like once establishing that we want to see how generations impact it can very easily become overwhelming to want to include it all which for how short LOK actually is there is a sense where I'd rather have condensed down parts of the growing cast to focus in. Adding in so many romance plots, not focusing on establishing solid character journeys for at least the main cast outside of Korra, and even not fully realizing it plot arcs all the way through [something I think because there was such a good grasp on the characters from the start always made it so outcomes were met, and in LOK things are just resolved because they need to be] all tend to limit LOK in a way that doesn't make it a bad show but holds it back.
Uhh this is an interesting viewpoint... I would say the plots of Korra were completely oriented around Korras growth. It's the legend of Korra thus it's all about her. The show did a great job exploring Korras psyche and showing how she's forced to change and then grows.
Equally this speaks to a "truism" that evil will always exist, regardless of the face, rationale, people behind it, it's largely the same motivations.
I feel like we needed characterizations of ozai azula and zuko as zuko was a main character who needed plot, not that aangs enemy needed fleshing out.
@@ShouPow yeah i hated learning more about azula, what a waste of time am i right?
@@fungichef1 how is that what you've gleaned from what I said?? What kinda well of assumptions are you drinking from?
Is it the issue that azula wasn't in LOK? While it could've been cool for her to be there I'm not surprised considering the only survivors from ATLA were katara, a healer, toph, a master earth bender, and zuko, a healthy royal. It would track that azula would've died by then or have been killed early in some conflict.. the brightest stars burn out faster.
31:49 I disagree with your take on the group dynamic in LoK.
Having a good group dynamic isn’t just about having deep conversations with everyone in the group. In fact I think it’s pretty clear that, that’s not what LoK is going for.
LoK focuses more on the characters having fun together and enjoying each others company in different ways rather then all of them trauma dumping on each other.
A perfect example of this is Bolin and Asami. They never have a deep conversation but they maintain a good friendship where they both have very different approaches to life and learn from each other. We see this particularly when they were playing Pai-Cho together.
Asami says the game is about patience and strategy while Bolin says the game is about being aggressive and moving fast. In the end Asami crushed him in pai-Cho bcs Asami’s approach is better suited for a strategy game but later in the episode the gang gain the trust of some locals thanks to Bolin being a movie star. Which is something that happened because he just kinda jumped at the opportunity without any strategy.
you mix real friendships in real life with well written dynamics in story writing
@@Rambrus0 I don’t see how a good dynamic in a story can’t mimic a healthy friendship in real life.
Sometimes having characters that just enjoy each other’s company and have each others back without needing to know each others trauma is fine
My biggest problem with this video is the way in which he talks about the group dynamic. You’re doing from a family-style always together, limited group… to a vast array of characters with all their lives being lived, coming together to accomplish goals. And the way he disregards Korra and Asami’s relationship ignoring that offscreen Korra only wrote to asami because she felt close to her and comfortable enough to talk about everything. But this guy says they weren’t even friends.,,, sure…
I wish I liked or enjoyed Korra half as much as I love Avatar: The Last Airbender. There's just too many flaws for me to enjoy. I struggled to just finishing each season. Season three was the best but also has issues and it wasn't enough to make me like the show. Season two Sigh. I hate it! just ruins and breaks too many things. I choice to ignore and act like it didn't happen... Season 4 is good, though I think it rushes through too many things. I could easily go on and on way I didn't like it but will keep it short.
I don't mind people liking the show and saying they think its good. Each to their own. I do struggle when people say its great or as good as the Last Airbender. I just don't understand or able to comprehend it.
Anyways. Good video. Enjoyed watching and listening to someone point out way they liked the show. I love hearing different views and opinions.
Couldn't agree more. I think season 3 is the best as well other than avatar Wan and the origin of the avatar. I hated that
I'm watching for the first time. The animation is definitely way better.
I love that the legend of Korra doesn't retread the same story from the original show. The world building is emphasized more, the villains all have understandable motives but have messed up ways of achieving their goals.
Still by the shows conclusion Peace is achieved in a way that amon, unalak, Zaheer, and kaveera All would have probably agreed with. Very cool IMO.
Correction: not so much unalak my bad, still love the show though.
I just started watching it for the first time. The animation is far superior. I'm enjoying it so far.
Season 1: I don't know if this was the writers' intention, but I think the Equalists are more comparable with race or other identity politics than they are with Communism. They also illustrate the idea that those who believe themselves marginalized aren't always the good guys. Sometimes those who cry oppression are looking from a skewed perspective, or straight up lying. Aside from the Triads (who are a problem for everyone weaker than them), there is no evidence of systemic non-bender oppression. We don't see them denied jobs, or the right to vote, or due process (until Tarlokk's emergency measures). The Equalists' main argument is "You can bend while we can't, and that's just not fair!"
Season 2: I mostly agree with your perspective on this season, but I liked Korra's reconciliation with her father. Not often that you see the hero overwhelmed with relief that they DIDN'T have to beat somebody up. Oh and at 25:38, again you say that the past Avatars told Aang he had to kill Ozai. As I pointed out in the previous video's comment: NONE OF THEM SAID THIS. Sorry to keep harping on this but It's one of my favorite scenes in the series and I hate seeing it misrepresented.
Team Avatar: I really hated the soup opera drama with Korra and her TA. And the way she treated Mako, without ever apologizing or even being called out for it, nearly wrecks her character for me. I feel a bit guilty about it now, but my initial thoughts about her going through PTSD was that she really needed a humble pie to the face.
Season 3: Nothing to add here, a good season with though-provoking villains.
Season 4: Good ideas, but Kuvira was too cartoonish, and also the walking mechs were jumping the shark. I also wish than when Korra got her mojo back, she made up with Mako and apologized for her rotten attitude.
Their entire system of govt in season 1 is one of power hoarders and foreign wealthy folks putting their arrogance before the lives of Republic city. Amon was right that non-benders HAVE historically been marginalized and able to be marginalized and so far no one cared about them.
He took reality, made a reframed story, and harnessed peoples real experiences.
I didn't care to read the rest of your post bc it feels like you're inferring something you personally believe in.. which is something 🤦🏾♂️
Yea I really wish Korra made time for both mako and Bolin, who were just as much supportive and by her side, just as much (if not more) as asami. She could’ve apologized for not writing to them and for being a jerk, especially in the past; but that she loved and adored them for everything they did for her and that she’d like to begin anew. But instead we get none of that, just a ‘I don’t know what to say’. 🥴🙄
@christymitchell4763 I mean.. she's 20/21 when the show ended. Do we really expect young people to have perfect relationship and communication? I think she did her best which is pretty good, given the circumstances, but like obviously not perfect
@ Still though. Aang was 13/14 when the series ended and he still spent time with everyone, not just Katara. Korra could’ve done the same too
1. Korra getting her bending back never bothered me after 3 seasons of aang learning the elements i honestly wouldn't have been interested in seeing that again i feel that s1 should've had 1 more episode seeing korra trying to navigate the world with only airbending wjth her slowly getting to her lowest point then at the end of the episode have aang show up.
2. I feel like I'm the only person who likes s2 specifically the big kaiju battle i guess I'm a huge superhero fan and love world ending stakes so i guess thats why it's fine.
3. I actually like korra using the avatar state in a petty way because it's a subtle arc through s2 with korra just using the avatar state in every situation because be honest if you could use it whenever you wanted you would. But korra constantly using the avatar state had a consequence with raava being ripped from her and losing the past lives and after she fuses with raava she only uses it twice in s3 one of those instances she was forced to and sparingly in s4.
all fair points!
I love kaiju battles too, I just feel like it doesn't belong in Avatar, it's way too wacky and over the top for a mostly grounded fantasy story in my opinion.
I like ice cream, I like pizza, but I don't wanna have ice cream on my pizza.
@joshuasgameplays9850 honestly the reason the kaiju battle didn't bother me was because energybending was never clearly defined so I can believe someone could Astral project using it also it was harmonic convergence where al spiritual energy is at its most powerful so its literally a one time thing that can never happen again.
Point 1. I agree. Maybe take a few episodes, allow her to become a better and more spiritual air Bender and then gain the Avatar state. Getting it after taking an L seems wrong. Point 2. I disagree. I like Godzilla but that not what I want from Avatar. There is also the world breaking retcons that acompany the spirit Kaiju.
Point 3. I half agree. Seeing her be petty is fine, seeing her get the Avatar state without any effort is not. It feels unearned. I hate everything to do with Rava and Vatu.
@@jeremybowser7690There are no retcons.
The best masterpieces are still often flawed, and imo, LoK is a masterpiece. Sadly people had "comparisitis" where they could only compare it to ATLA (which also has plenty of issues on its own but people gloss over those whenever they criticize LoK for some reason), instead of looking at LoK for what it is
I'm glad more people are watching/rewatching Korra (especially as adults) and understanding that it has incredible themes and has so much impact if you simply let the show be itself instead of "this isn't ATLA"
While I do agree people tend to gloss over ATLAs flaws
It's very, very... ignorant, to dismiss comparisons to ATLA. Korra piggybacks off of ATLA, it references it regularly, uses its characters, affects that story.
It is IMPOSSIBLE not to compare them.
As for the show itself, the 2 main issues with TLOK compared to ATLA. There's no singular overarching goal that runs in the background.
In ATLA you have the final goal, stop the fire nation from taking over the world. The various seasons each have their own separate major plot point, but all of them revolve around that central plot point.
The 2nd MAJOR issue with TLOK is the characters compared to ATLA.
Team Korra don't have relationships between each other like Team Aang. But even worse than that Korra as a character, her progression will give you whiplash, because it feels like she gets a hard reset every single damn season.
So while TLOK is far from a bad show. While ATLA has plenty of flaws. Korra is treated harsher by fans for good reason.
@@AgentZombie6021i do not think its fair bc of the restriction Nick was putting on the LOK, if they were able to have like 20 episodes per season I think they show which i thought was great wouldn’t been more vastly loved, I will say in the LOK i personally thought Amon and Zaheer were better villains than Ozai, until that final episode they were more relevant during there seasons than Ozai was in any of ATLA and I do think rn if there was a kid who watched ATLA and the LOK he would pick the LOL but my girlfriend who is 21 I convinced her to watch both shows and she liked the LOK way better than ATLA and when I asked her reasoning she said that the LOK felt like a more mature show for her while she still liked ATLA she said she feels like that would capture a child’s attention more easily but the LOK seemed more her vibe bc the age of korra and she also liked how there was a variety of likeable characters, so while my view point might be biased she was someone who hadn’t seen any of these and felt like the LOK defentiley fits an older audience
@@AgentZombie6021korra getting a “reset” to her character every season is definitely a stretch. I only felt like that happened during S2
S3-4 her character definitely felt more mature, reasonable & felt like she was growing into her role as an avatar & a leader. Definitely a step up from how she was in S1
A more interesting explanation as to why the avatar is special and the bridge between the mortal and the spirit realm would have been to make the avatar the valve that helps to regulate the flow of the cosmic/spiritual energy produced by the constant clashing between Vaatu and Raava. And to make this two the actual enbodiments of the trascendent concepts of "order" and "caos", like, not in a black and withe manner. For example, instead of making this two hate eachother, they could have simply stated that the reason they are constantly clashing is not because they hate each other, but because that is the way they are able to conect with each other, plus, in their eyes, the clashing could be actually something closer to ethier rough play or an eternal dance responsable for the constant release and reabsortion of cosmic energy or somethin like that.
And in this case, the real reason the avatar is special is because the first avatar saw how outcome of this "cosmic dance" deeply affected everyone, for both good and bad but more impontant, how this whole thing fomented a really instable world for the humans that, as a response, antagonised all spirits.
Following this logic, the avatar wold have become the valve of spiritual/cosmic energy to stop the constan conforntation againts spirits, to ensure a more estable and prosper future to humanity and to maintain the balance of the universe without appealing to violence. Making the avatar the representative of both Raava and Vaatu.
LoK wasn't that bad. it was just shafted by the writers with terrible and convoluted writing, that disrespected the original material. it had deep themes too, like the water-bender civil war which was something I was exited to see. only for it to be shit on by the writers thinking 'dark avatar' was a better idea, which ended being absolute shit in every possible way.
If the writing is bad and terrible then I think we can say the show is bad and terrible. I don’t think the show is completely awful, but bad writing definitely handicaps it a ton.
I don't like how people say "this show disrespects the original material". This IS the original material. It's literally the same crew of writers and people. Sure you can say you don't like it and that's fine, I also think it's very flawed, but it is canon to the world of Avatar, and it is the same crew. It's more "original material" than arguably the Star Wars Sequels.
It wasn't ruined by writers it had major studio tampering
Yeah, it could have been a lot better given more time.
I haven't watched this show in years. But I remember really liking it. I do remember feeling like the second season was so much bigger than seasons 3 and 4 tho. Like subject matter wise. Like the bad guy in season 2's power level was way beyond Season 3 and 4s villains. It would be like Goku going from Frieza to Buu. Then going back to the androids and Cell. It's been awhile tho, so perhaps it's time for a rewatch. Awesome video man.
I personally don't mind the concept of a dark avatar because I believe it would've been a fantastic way to reveal that the Avatar, the ultimate arbiter of balance, was fundamentally out of balance all along. And has been for ten thousand years.
Sure, with Raava's vessel at the helm the world had order and relative "peace" - the 100 year war not withstanding, but order and peace came at the cost of progress. Subsequently every nation was kept in a state of relative stagnation. Which could add another underlying element to why Roku was so against Sozen's ambitions to expand.
Maybe tweak it so Unalaq's plan to help Korra restore her bending was to have the Avatar merge with Vaatu to force the Avatar spirit back into balance.
As for why Vaatu is 'evil' - well, of course he's pissed. Raava is his other half and he got cut off from her. When La lost Tui, he went absolutely berserk and destroyed an entire navy and that was for only a couple minutes at most. Vaatu's been trapped for 10k years! His fury would be unending.
Not only is the fact that a nonbender president replaced the all bender council kind of a copout, *it wasn't even an all bender council*
The fact that in season 1 all members of it were benders was a complete coincidence, we see in a flashback that Sokka was once a councilman, in fact he was the chairman of the council. This means that it was entirely possible for nonbenders to gain significant political power in the UR well before Raiko was elected.
Sure, you could argue that nonbenders we're necessarily barred from holding office, and instead it was just much harder for them due to systemic bigotry and bias in the voterbase. But I would argue that's a moot point, since it goes completely unaddressed in the text.
This is a good analysis
Did you agree with his interpretation that the Equalists were an allegory for communism? I think he was way off.
@@Stahlwald I do believe that it's at least partially based on communism, but I'm not very confident the writers ever intended for it to be a 1:1 allegory. If it WAS meant to be a direct allegory, they did a pretty bad job.
Actually it was an all bender council after Sokka died.
@@vetarlittorf1807 iPad kid level reading comprehension.
@@joshuasgameplays9850 No. You said the council wasn't benders-only, but it was. For all we know, Sokka only got his position because of his connection to Aang.
To me, Korra isn't bad it just suffers from wanting to do so much when Nick didn't care to give them that time. A lot of people note that the less episodes really impacts a show and it's true, but the only way to handle that is often to know when to hold back on story elements. I see this in a lot of stories that it's easy to over-add elements because you love the world and it's complexities but not knowing the future means you also run the risk of overburdening what little you have. People often go on about how ATLA had a lot of filler but the answer is it didn't really to me, it just was willing to play with pacing and needed development while understanding where things come from to follow it through to the end because you know where things needed to go and how to get them there. People have pointed out there are only really 4 filler episodes with one being the recap episode yet even those do something to highlight parts of the world; The Great Divide is hated but it does explore Sokka/Katara's differences and how easy it is for communities to split. The Fortuneteller teaches others to not be blindly reliant and that things aren't always to be trusted because we are told, something that comes up in Ba Sing Se in a much more direct way. And the Painted Lady showcases the Fire Nation doesn't necessarily care about it's civilians in favor of the war, it continues to humanize many of the lower class as being victims just as much to greed and war. It would be much more difficult for LOK to use time as just full on character episodes but it wouldn't take much to also look at each episode and plan out how characters had a bigger construal role from point a to b in how they change like Korra by the better shaping of b plots and motivations. It didn't always do things perfectly, but if I look at relationships between the two series for example we can romantic threads being used without often being the sole focus allowing for characters to still act on their own; Sokka has a scene where he is shaped by his time with Yue and what that later means for when Suki is imprisoned. By taking the plot driven approach romance was the key tie to actions but it often felt like characters were lost in the romance aspect beyond their own growth. People say they come off as more of a friendship viable in this setting but then that ignores that the show relies on their relationships to establish them as characters, but then those relationships tend to overall falter because it doesn't care to go more in depth with it's impacts of characters in the long run-- the dynamics of being ex's would have done great into shaping character arcs of needing to be better because romance in involved rather than just showing us scenes of them together.
My assumption for why they kept the Air Nomads after they got Korra was that they would (assumingely) release them after they ensured Korra was indeed taken out. If Korra somehow broke free, was freed, and got away, the Air Nomads could be a reminder that Korra and Co shouldn’t try anything crazy.
This and your 15 year avatar video deserve so many more views, and can see them growing over time. Exceptional and impressive work, keep it up.
Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed the videos!
What I am most upset about is the idea of Korra disconnecting her past lives of the Avatars, including Aang himself. How can either she or the next reincarnations gain some wisdom from their predecessors? That is what makes me stop watching this show after the end of season 2.
Girl, they told you why it happened... It's the legend of Korra... She is now the wisest avatar available in a brand new world. Wans predecessor only had him, a pretty shite avatar considering he had no real tutelage. Korra had all the tutelage of past lives, wan, raava AND made her own decisions and reshaped the world.
If you can't cope with a changing story sure... But it's pretty well explained and frankly understandable.
It would be weird if in a brand new world legend nothing changed??
I would say the advice of the past lives are just flawed now, dangerous even to pin the choices of reality on the wisdom of 10000 years ago.
Korra.... Wise? Are kidding?
@@ShouPow that's right burn all the history books, there old and dangerous.
@@fungichef1 girl wtf are these sideways comments you're making?? The avatar past lives aren't history books, they're individuals with a biased perspective who would've held their own biases throughout their lives. If Korra followed wan the world would still be unbalanced. If she followed kyoshi she might've ended kuvira. Korra clearly sought guidance from her elders and masters (as all avatars should do). But to conflate "history" with the perspective of individuals, is quite dangerous.
The avatar universe seems to have history books, but they're not well preserved as they're seemingly monopolized by wan shi tong, asshole who knows 10,000 things too few.
@@keatonkitsune4064 "wisest avatar available". She's the wisest by proxy, and arguably wiser than Wan who just... Banished the spirits instead of maybe teaching humans to live harmoniously with them.
Reading and reading comprehension is super important.
If I can sum up Legend of Korra with one phrase, it would be "missed opportunity". They had a great setup with Amon in Season 1, a great setup with Unalaq in Season 2, a great setup with Kuvira in Season 4, yet failed to properly resolve any of them. The only kinda satisfying ending was with the Red Lotus in Season 3, but even then the heroes weren't really forced to deal with the ideology of their opponents in a real way, which should be the point of villains with "good intentions", but they end up being resolved with a boss fight anyway.
Antagonists are there to challenge the hero, either externally, like Sauron or Ozai from ATLA, forcing them to grow and overcome them; or internally, like what they're trying to accomplish with LOK. However, this failure to present the characters with this internal struggle of whether "the antagonist is right" leads to a disconnect between the story and the plot, and leads to most of the character progression feeling forced, or weid, or rushed.
Yeah, every single season has a great premise and then screws it up (3rd excluded), the first season talking about non-bender inequality was good, but it wasn’t shown as much as told, and the one big time we are shown oppression with the curfew is a response to the equalists, and by the end everything is resolved because the leader is a hypocrite so we don’t need to deal with any consequences, also, the entire time it sets up a need for spirituality to airbend and then she unlocks it through selflessness, which is very actively not what we were told she would need, season two I think had the best premise of any season, a civil war between the north and the south, not black and white issues that the avatar might not be able to solve, spirituality in a new world, and how taking no side can be siding with the oppressor, yes please, give me more of all of that, and then the entire thing derails itself, funnily enough I think season three had the worst premise, I don’t like how harmonic convergence just made a new Airbenders and effortlessly undid a genocide but the rest of the season did everything, amazingly, and season four had an ok premise, but then went too far showing how kuvira was evil which took away all nuance and turned the plotline of some of team avatar siding with her from one that could be interesting to one of the characters just being deceived, I also hate the fact that it devolved into a giant mech fight
My biggest issue with the show will always be how they made changes to the world of avatar that often contradicted the original series and felt disrespectful to the original show, but that’s one of the other big ones
@@ezracohen6020 You're right. Especially with the spirits.
@@KaiHung-wv3ul yeah, everything relating to spirits is the biggest example of that, but there’s also how they broke every single rule established for bloodbending, and a lot of other smaller things throughout the show, even if the legend of Korra was entirely separate from avatar I would dislike the show (there are a whole host of issues that I have with the show), but I certainly wouldn’t hate it as much as I do, a sequel series should build on the world that already exists in ways that makes sense as a continuation from the original, not just change things for the convenience of the story it wants to tell and certainly not doing so in a way that feels disrespectful to the original
@@ezracohen6020 What rule did they break about bloodbending?
Bolin is my fav character but literally just followed everyone around in the first 3 seasons. I'm not gonna argue whether he got a lot of character development but seeing with kuvira to try and rebuild the earth kingdom thinking he was doing the right thing only to find out what kuvira's plans really were really hit hard. Opal and him even broke up bc he chose to stay with kuvira. My fav sequence with bolin was his escape after the train up until after the fight with the escaped benders. I'm just glad bolin got to do something.
Such a well made video, so much of the analysis is very in depth and bringing up ideas that I had never considered even after being a long time fan.
One thing is at 47:31. When you say that you don’t think the Earth Kingdom would fall into chaos that quickly. I was thinking that this was showing how weak the Queen’s government was because she was so narcissistic or disconnected that she believed her kingdom was strong when it was far from it. And that there was so much dislike of the Queen that the people just needed that one action for a few people to start the chaos then it exploded exponentially.
That being said, the chaos and immediate fires at just about every block do seem very exaggerated.
But either way, still great analysis as always 👍
Asami and Korra together felt so unbelievably shoehorned it HURTS. It was like they were just trying get extra funding for another season by claiming they were allies of the LGBT movement...when nothing about their entire show had any indication of that being the case.
I’ll say this; I think more about the legend of Korra than the legend of aang. I think of Zaher, I think of amon, I’ve pushed season 2 oooout of my head, I think of the world they created from the ruins of the old. I think in parts Korra shined brighter than the last airbender but it was never as consistent.
For me when I watch season 2, I think of the Dark spirits in season 2 as "corrupted" spirits, they are literally infected with the Darkness by an outside force, this is why they look completely different from Spirits like Heibei and the Ocean Spirit when they were Dark Spirits, in that they were just supremely pissed off.
I actually hope that Korra gets to act as a mentor for the next Avatars mission. Wouldn't that be something to see her in a role as a spirit where she can show that she's learned from the past but she still has parts of her personality that we can recognize?
I watched the Legend of Korra for the first time last year, after being a huge ATLA fan since I was a kid. I had avoided it for a long time because of the negative reputation it had. I wish I hadn’t have watched it. I was left utterly disappointed and wish I could’ve liked it, really I wish I could. Her whole character and selfishness really made the show all about her rather than other people she was supposed to be serving and protecting as the avatar. Such a shame, her character had so much potential. I didnt think I could dislike a series more than people disliked the first ATLA movie.
TLOK is by far the best show I’ve ever watched and I actually like it way more than ATLA
The difference between ATLA and TLOK is:
ATLA is for everybody
TLOK is not for everybody
Simple. I enjoyed LOK and she became my best avatar. 👌
I also like Aang thats why i dont argue with Korra haters. because ill need to challenge their love for aang which would be wrong because i love aang too
Personally, I think Korra dropped the ball hard. Take away the fact that every character aside from Tenzin were underbaked and unmemorable, the story was just subpar at best. It showed potential, but despite trying to tackle darker themes, it manages to deliver them in a very juvenile way, and by far its biggest cardinal sin was trying to explain the magic behind the bending. Thats exactly the reason people didn't like Star Wars Phantom Menace. Even the villains, which the fans swear is the best part are the most unerbaked cookie-cutter villains you could ever make. Sure they were intimidating, they had a personality, but they didn't have character.
Best way I've ever heard it described was "atla is a show for children written by adults, and korra is a show for adults written by children"
@@twizms7362 I've never read something more accurate in my life lol
Um it's written by the same people, so that's a crazy diss 😂
@@dakai-kun2248 individual show writers, sure. But the head show writer never came back after ATLA
I still think this show was worth it!
Absolutely
I’ve said this multiple times, but despite how many times people say that the show is garbage, provide good reasons why that I can side with, I can’t bring myself to genuinely dislike the show. I guess all I can say is that the show is a mess, but it’s my mess.
I remember really liking Korra when I first saw it, and then I started absolutely hating it a few years later, but now my view on it is just sorta “Meh”. It’s not the worst thing in the world. It just had a lot of potential that I felt the writers didn’t capitalize on.
Season 3 and Season 4 are my favorite
both are great!
My is 1&3 then 4&1
Good video as always, but I take issue with the claim that Amon & the Equalists are intended as a direct critique of communism. I feel like this gets thrown around a lot, and while they're certainly a revolutionary group, and reference communist iconography, the bender/nonbender divide is such a specific concept to the Avatar universe that I really doubt it's intended to just be a direct allegory for communism, especially since the only real character that's a member of the bourgeoisie (Hiroshi) is firmly an Equalist.
To me, TLOK is actually a gem and there is no need to compare it with ATLA, because from my part, the only thing they have in common is the world (bending, nations, etc) and other than that they are completely different. Korra is an adult series and the protagonists are older as the ones in ATLA, going through early adulthood and their 20s. As a person who has had therapy before in my life, its completely understandable from Korra to evolve but get back to her default behavior when things get bad (say the recrutement of the ignorant airbender). Team avatar from ATLA were early teens who lived together and spent every moment together, factors that strongly contributed to their more rapid changes and evolution. As an adult myself, I have noticed that sometimes pain and suffering is enough for people to bond. You may not have had the most intimate interactions with certain individuals, however the fact that you both went through a tough life experience will always connect you, which is why I believe the team remained loyal to Korra, even if they had nothing to benefit from. Its the true differences in friendship dynamics that escalate in various ways as we age that separate LOK from ATLA and even though I recognise its flaws and parts I dont quite enjoy, it still remains one of my all time favorite series. Thank you for the excellent piece of work, Gold man!
I'm a huge fan of TLOK, and I would just like to pin point one thing I noticed.
One of the first scenes we see Korra as a kid, her outfit is a very very light blue. Over the seasons, her outfit is getting darker and darker, which could signify how she went from the innocent child, to a person who's growing and experiencing the reality and pain of being the Avatar. It could show the amount of pain and mistakes she wents through and does
I liked the characters from korra for the most part, but I didn't fall in love with them like I did with O.G team avatar. I really felt like even when korra was at her most powerful she just seemed very lack luster as an avatar. Aang even at the age of 12 with no one to guide him at the start of the series felt more competent than korra even though she had basically 17 years of training with the best teachers the world had to offer before the story even starts.
A lot of the issues you pointed out in the series is one of the main reasons why I just could never really get into the legend of Korra. I loved the idea of a sequel where we got to see the Avatar after aang and when I heard what type of person Korra was going to be I loved it, but I genuinely felt like the writers fumbled the ball so bad. Season 2 is a prime example of a hard fumble.
Team Korra was terrible. Bolin was incredibly annoying most of the time, Mako was bland and a buzzkill, and Asami was just kind of there. All were loyal to Korra when it came time to do battle, I’ll give them that. But they never felt like a cohesive unit.
I always thought it’d have been better to age Jinora up to somewhere around Korra’s age. That friendship would’ve made more sense to me. They’d be living together, been training partners, etc. I also think, since Jinora read so much and was obviously a brain, they could’ve given her some sort of engineering ingenuity, akin to Great-Uncle Sokka. Like maybe Jinora could’ve designed the wing suits we see in Season 4, and thusly contributing something pretty great to the airbending art, is how she gets her mastery tattoos.
Bolin is probably much closer to Kora than Mako ever was. Bolin sorta took a step as a pseudo Earth Bending teacher to Kora. It makes sense for him to tag along. Mako literally has no role in the group, and I agree, he shouldn't have been a part of the Team Kora, but he was probably kept due to Bolan. Bolin is literally the only reason for him to continue following. Asami is there as Kora's emotional support. She shouldn't be following closely like she actually does throughout the series, but a better method to include her would have been to use letters between her and Kora to build that intimate relationship as Kora and her describing what is happening between them. Maybe when Kora finds herself lost, we could see Asami visiting her to help her through a tough time, but soon needs to leave for her business.
The only role I see Mako feeling is being the common sense of the group.
Honestly I think TLOK is as good as TLA. In fact I think there are several things Korra did better then Airbender most notably the villains, Korra's personal growth and the romance (after season 2).
While Zuko and Azula are great I think that Ozai, Zhao and Long Feng are pretty generic Saturday Morning Cartoon villains. Ozai in particular I feel really fails as a villain because he didn't do all that much. No really think about it, he didn't wipe out the Air Nomads, he didn't betray either Aang or Roku, he didn't hunt Aang relentlessly across the whole world, didn't shoot Aang in the back at Ba Sing Se and didn't even kill his father to take the throne.
He did nothing to Aang, Katara, Sokka or Toph so when the final battle between him and Aang arrives it's not personal for either or them which is the real reason why I think the show added the whole "Aang not wanting to kill Ozai" plot point because without that there is no emotional stakes for Aang in the finale.
Not to say Ozai sucks as a villain as his abuse towards his children makes him someone we want to see brought down but in terms of his relationship to the main character he has nothing. It's nothing personal for Aang or Ozai it's just their duty.
Most of Korra's adversaries either make it personal by all of them saying "The world has no need of you. We are here to replace you." Korra has a much more interesting relationship with her villains then Aang does with most of his whom all seem to be more adversaries to Zuko and Azula.
I like that Korra actually gets a chance to talk to most of her enemies instead of just always fighting them. She sees their point of view and later takes those views to heart and tries to bring about the world her enemies wanted WITHOUT the needless suffering.
And that's the other thing, Korra remains the focus of the show throughout its run. For whatever reason Aang is basically reduced to secondary supporting character in Fire where he has less screen time, dialogue and overall impact on the plot compared to Zuko who basically becomes the main character of the series. Even in Sozin's Comet Zuko has more dialogue, more impact on the plot and more overall growth and development. Aang in Fire is really only the focus for about 5 or 6 episodes and he often has to share the focus with other characters, again, most notably Zuko.
Korra is the reason the villains are doing what they're doing, of the 52 episodes of the series Korra is the focus or a major driving force for the stories for about 44 of those episodes. And 12 of those are from Balance.
Finally the romance which while bad in the first two seasons saw a massive improvement in season 3 and 4. Honestly I never much cared for any ship in Airbender outside of ones involving Sokka and even then it was a pretty shallow romance. Same goes for the first half of Korra with some of the worst romances in series with Makorra and Masami.
But with the second half we got Bolin and Opel, Kai and Jinora, and of course Korrasami. While it's hard to appreciate today it has to be remembered that Korrasami was a MASSIVELY popular ship starting around the halfway point of Season 3 and while there is now more open depiction of LGBT in Western Animation it just wasn't a thing that could happen. So yeah Korrasami was and IS important but besides that they are a really engaging couple.
I love that they didn't fall in love after just one episode like literally every other couple in this series, instead they took their time got to know each other and grew to develop romantic feelings for each other naturally over the course of the series.
A lot of tried to undercut the relationship these days but a lot of them are using modern day standards against a time when what we got was seen as groundbreaking at the time. To have two main characters of the same gender fall in love and actually show that in the show itself just didn't happen at the time. Sure all they did was hold hands but go back and watch reactions to this moment, some people broke down, crying tears of joy while others were to stunned to say anything.
Kataang is a run of the mile "will they won't they" romance with a pairing that kinda gets worse as the series goes on (the fact that the two spend most of the last half of Fire arguing with one another and saying neither of them understand the other which goes unresolved at the end of the series does not help). And that's reflected in the numbers, Korrasami is the most popular ship in the fandom even beating out popular fan-preferred ship Zutara while Kataang is usually at the least popular and the comics did nothing to help this pairing.
There are other things I would like to talk about but those are my main thoughts as to what I feel Korra did better then Airbender.
I love Korra fans, so you are certainly welcome here!
The villains in Korra were strawmen for politics the writers did not understand.
Also Asami was a total nothing burger of a character.
@@adeptdamage3669 Focusing on the second point, did you watch the show? It's made clear that the heroes AGREE with the ideas of the villains views just not their methods. Toph flat out states that the villains have noble goals that should be seriously considered and not dismissed.
You want a straw-man look to Master Pakku, he is there just to be a sexist jerk to Katara who is only "Right" because he has the power to back himself up and his ideas are meant to be 100% wrong because Katara is in the right.
THAT is a straw-man, he is there to be proven wrong with nothing to backup his sexist claims and is defeated by him seeing the necklace he was going to give to Katara's Grandmother and Katara just saying that his views on women are wrong.
And Asami if is a nothing character then why did she become so popular BEFORE she became Korra's girlfriend. I was there at the start of the series and Asami exploded into popularity halfway through the first season and remained popular. Asami has considerable depth and nuance and if you want I can cover every bit of it because again, Korra fangirl here, I can do this all day.
@@Winter-The-MasqueradeExcept the fact that TLOK just cannot handle the ideologies of it's villians properly. The resolution of both season 1 and season 2 is not a rebuttal of the ideologies of the villians, but the villians themselves being defeated by plot and that's it. Amon's name is exposed, and in season 2, the Civil war plotline is actually a ruse for mustache twirling villiany.
And no, Asami doesn't have "considerable depth and nuance". Season 1 already had her occupy the less interesting position of a character she could have taken, and in season 2 she is nothing but the third person in the shitty love triangle and transport. That's all she is. And in the third season, Mako, Bolin and Asami might as well not even be there. Like, please, Toph in ATLA was more interesting of a character than Asami is, and Toph has easily the least arc among all of the Gaang.
One of the most impressive things to me in the legend of Korra, is that each seasons opposition or villains somehow one up the last.
Each victory over a villain makes you wonder “Okay she just beat up this big baddy, now WHO THE HECK COULD CONTEND HER NOW?” They always find a way to make a real, threatening villain.
I absolutely LOVE tlok I think people always try to compare it to atla but the writers did such a great job at separating it from aang’s story, I was afraid that the second show would be repetitive but they introduced us to a completely different era, completely different avater and a show that feels just different enough.
Nickelodeon did anything to sabotage this show but it still turned out WAY better than most shows targeted for children
I feel like I need to add that comparing between atla and tlok is pretty much the whole point and im not saying that we shouldn’t do that, what im trying to say is that avatar the last airbander was so much more than just a cartoon you know? It shaped an entire generation and inspired so many good stories, I just dont think its fair to expect korra to have the same impact
3:17 that she is naive, bratty, and easily manipulated is the one thing each season she struggles with
Just finished the series two days ago. Impeccable timing before this video uploads! 😊👌
whatd you think of it after finishing it?
@@afattestmerc Not as good as TLA but still a blast.
@@wickdaline8668 thats about how i felt about it lol
Going back to Book 4, I realized that Toph is right about one thing about Korra’s enemies:
people like Amon(equality for all) Zaheer (freedom from corrupt/oppressive governments and monarchs) and Kuvira (having no leadership is a bad thing and stability to the Earth Kingdom is important )really think they are the heroes of their own stories.
While they are right, Korra’s enemies are totally out of balance and they have taken their political ideologies way too far. They are not your typical baddies as Firelord Ozai or Azula. However, taking ideologies to extreme lengths is basically what happened to Firelord Sozin before and during the 100 year war.
Really great video, watched it fully and enjoyed every second. Every point was very well made and the structure is neatly put together. Now onto some thoughts, i feel like they messed up writing raava and vaatu, as an idea i think its perfect that the avatar is half spirit, and the plotline made the avatar cycle and reincarnation stuff make sense, the only issue there is, is as you said they mentioned raava to be an all good spirit, while personally i saw that raava wasnt as peaceful as she should’ve been if she was really representing all good, they should’ve went into that way more. The krew is barely given any chances to progress as you said but i feel like korrasami was written well, it was slow with barely any moments but i think thats realistic or atleast from my experiences. Also i think zaheer kept the airbenders hostage just so they wouldn’t resist, the rest of the black lotus had to be present while they poisoned korra because she obviously would be destructive in the avatar state when its out of control, you even see minghua ready for fighting while the poison was distributed, so the airbenders had to stay out of the way I think thats the reason they werent released immediately. As for season 4, the beginning was perfect but it lost me mid season, they barely dug into the motives of kuvira which could’ve been great. So yeah overall i agree with almost everything you said and this video was such a breath of fresh air especially when everyone wants to hate on tlok and “fix” it subjectively trying to make it exactly like Atla. The two are meant to be different and tbh korra has the best character development in both series, some might debate its zuko but i feel like korras development was more clear to see. She is a good character, and the entire show is good even when its bad. Honestly if korra was released immediately after atla maybe people would be more nostalgic towards it and hate it less.
Thank you for watching!
the irony about the writers attempting to make kuvira an irredeemable racist, fascist is they also tried to make her redeemable. i am supposed to sympathize and feel sorry for a despicable person because her parents abandoned her and she cried a bit? wtf?! she literally placed people in concentration camps based off their ethnic identities
Honestly, as a European I simply do not get this very typical US American obsession with "communism". The equalist movement never gave me communist vibes, I legitimately heard of it being an allegory for communism here first. To me, it gives much more French revolution vibes. But most importantly, the narrator perfectly and beautifully lays it out right in front of us (and themself) that the communism allegory does not work. Because it just isn't there. Not everything "evil" and potentially socially and societally critical or status quo questioning must automatically be something stemming from communism or socialism. My own hypothesis why the US to this day obesses so much over this obscure and invisible mythological danger figure threatening their great great society (which in itself is basically a form of a medieval oligarchy, highly dominated by superstition and other forms of religion over scientific knowledge and suffers from vast social inequality and also injustice) is that they have not yet overcome their own ideological brainwashing from back during the cold war. In pluribus unum was lost for in God we trust which goes directly against their own constitution of the nation being a society free from ideological oppression and dogma, but also from my own High School experiences in the states I would furthermore suggest that this indoctrination into black and white ways of thinking, this brainwashed ideology of " USA = great, good, Christian, free vs. Communism/Socialism (Russia/China/Cuba) = evil, poor, godless chained but also trying to infiltrate the great American way and threatening their way of life " still continues to this day where obscure shadow figures and looming doom, death and destruction by the hand of this non-distinct dangerous enemy ideology are put into children's heads without them ever questioning the validity of these concepts. Us in Europe, especially us in Germany, have also had our very own (and probably even more significant) hands on experiences with communist and/or socialist forms of government but still even those that grew up beyond the former wall, nor us who grew up in former West Germany know this fear mongering ideology or have this intrinsic fear of these vague concepts. The bottom line is, both socialism and communism are economic political theories resulting in types of governments, just the same as with capitalism, especially in its purest form like it's to this day practiced in the US. They are all forms of ideological extremes on opposite ends of a theoretical construct which in this belief is linear, however scholars have long reached the conclusion that especially when it comes to forms of government, economic systems and especially societal constructs it's a spectrum of different theoretical lines being applied simultaneously, varying individually by the degree of expression of every single component.
So long story short: I don't get this US American obsession with communism and not everything has to forcefully be pushed into a communist mold just for the ongoing narrative's sake even though it doesn't fit.
African American here. Was looking for a comment like this. Although it hurts my heart the jabs you take at communisms expense, I completely agree with you. Very strange way of interpreting the world Americans have cultivated for themselves. We well and truly have NOT made it past cold war thinking. Its sad
Ok commie
Is it possible that they make a LoK remake? The one where everything from the characters to the circumstances were fixed? Such as Sokka not dying early or even having an episode that shows what happened to him.
ATLA crafted a better story from a simpler premise. Korra gave us a more complex world with more nuanced villains, but was more poorly executed and therefore is remembered as the worse show. It sure doesn't help that Korra wasn't even intended as a full show at first, and had no long-term arc until the second half of the show, whereas ATLA was obviously made with a long-term plan from the start.
9 months late but I really like how you mentioned the stupidity of having Ravaa and Vaatu be good and bad and allowing for a 'dark avatar' to be a thing. It would have made so much more thematic sense for Wan to absorb/merge with both Ravaa and Vaatu and become the living embodiment of balance between yin and yang. You can even tie this into Korra rediscovering her bending ability, that she has to find this connection once again to Ravaa and Vaatu by travelling into the spirit world. You could even make Unalaq's whole plan be to find them and merge with them first and become the new Avatar and use the Avatar's powers for his own selfish, conquest reasons. May still be stupid but I'd honestly prefer it to the Dark Avatar Kaiju ending.
I watched ATLA as a kid and i had a true watching of it 3 years ago. A year later I tried watching Korra and it isn’t a masterpiece like avatar is but mannnn it was a great watch. It is worth watching it. Season 2 was ehhhhhh and season 1 is just solid but season 3 and 4 was greattt
Couldn't agree more! Except I never had the pleasure of watching either as a kid. I watched both for the first time when i was 21
The actual only good TLOK review I think I’ve ever seen
I let out an exasperated sigh when Korra ended. I didn’t want to like korra better, yet still somehow I felt more touched by her story.
I think the legend of Korra really resonated with being a good show in terms of connecting with folks who had those issues (depression, PTSD, fear of living in unstable environments).
In terms of story continuation, I honestly think season two just wrecked any sort of recovery. It was…a season that absolutely destroyed the continuity that was ATLA. That isn’t to say that I had an issue with the art, because I didn’t! I loved seeing the southern water tribe grow into a beautiful city! Story wise it just disintegrated the story ball.
The legend of Korra showed us the struggles of a teenager/young adult avatar. It showed us complexities of society that teens/young adults struggle to comprehend. The last two seasons were very much well done. It made me feel uncomfortable seeing Korra just suffer through chronic illness, and I think, by doing so, has really left an impactful mark as the viewer.
I liked Legend of Korra.
My opinion, but I think people are too harsh on the show
I watched this show as a kid but as I got older I forgot what it was like so seeing all the bad responses to the show had me skeptical about rewatching LOK after finishing up ATLA but now that I’m watching it its actually not that bad just not as good still watchable not binge worthy tho imo
I always find if kind of funny when i see peopel say that nobody likes LoK because it has like an 80% at least and anyone who has actually watched the show likes it
in my experience most people like Korra
@@thegoldman25 ya. Some people just have a preconceived notion and refuse to change regardless of the actual quality of the show
I feel her so much, the last part got into me mentally.😢
I love atla for the impact it had on my childhood but I love korra mora because she’s more relatable and she’s trying to figure out her place in the world when everyone is saying she’s not needed anymore. It’s a masterpiece. Korra alone is the best episode in my opinion of the whole avatar franchise.
I didn’t really get into this universe until I was in my teens. Korra is way more relatable to me and her show means more to me. When I was at a low point so was Korra. She was an avatar that I needed to see much like I needed to see Superman stay with the girl on the ledge or Spider-man giving a young boy his mask to make the kid feel brave.
I wish in S2 Korra had to have both Rava and Vatu 'inside' to truly become balanced, ya know like Rava said. one can't live without the other
Have you heard of Mistborn?
Because that's what happens.
What an excellent breakdown, I agree with a lot but not all but you raised excellent points that didn’t even occur to me, Season 4 is so real and is my favorite over the great 3. The withdrawal, losing yourself and harming yourself and the haunt were very excellent and if they ever adapt this to Netflix I hope they explore this is even more maturity and adult themes, especially because Avatar Kuruk lived such a debacherous life it suggests, to me at least, there’s more to her getting lost and reflecting her beat up and destroyed was a great way to show the ways we hurt ourselves that a kids show ultimately has to be careful about
Also enjoyed it a lot more than ATLA, Aang is a bit comical and unrealistic to me but I think the world was so terrible ultimately he’s the perfect response and the perfect person to handle that time and conflict. Korra was a real person. We’ve been Korra (maybe not the creator of the video) or dealt with a Korra, and ultimately we all will share some kind of path Korra had. Aang was a bit like a Superman or something like that, an unrealistic depiction of a perfect hero of sorts.
I agree with most of what you said here. I really wish they had done something different with Season 2. It damages the series and the lore of the universe in irrevocable ways. If season 2 was decent would have a lot less to criticize.
Why during these video essays nobody talks about how freaking AMAZING the animation & fight choreography is in LOK?! Like am I the only one whose mind is blown and sometimes even dare to say is leagues above ATLA? Kora’s fight with Kavira at the end alone is like one of the most beautiful looking, intense, and well constructed fight sequence in western animation tv in modern times.
I will admit as much as i love legend of korra it did really fumble the bag with team avatar like they never really felt like friends more so a acquaintance.
Also i agree with you korrasami is the most forced ship like i can see korra still being friends with mako but I'll never understand how asami became romantically interested in korra like i can see her forgiving korra and becoming frenemies but romance i absolutely refuse to beleieve that.
I know that the show isn't perfect and it had some absolutely massive shoes to fill following the Last Airbender and I think that, a few missteps aside (like with the romantic drama), I think that Legend of Korra is a worthy sequel to the Last Airbender and it's nice that you can genuinely see Korra become both a better Avatar and a better person as the season's go on.
Tbh I think if Korra was a fire bender she would’ve had a personality that made sense. She’s so hot headed and stubborn which is absolutely NOT like the similar element to air in water but absolutely in fire. It feels weird that the creators wanted her to be entirely different from Aang but she’s also of the element that was as close to air as it could be. It’s why Aang struggled with fire bending so much in the first place (though yes earth is technically the elemental opposite of air the personality opposite usually seems to be fire especially compared to Aang).
Had a roommate 19 years older than me who LOVED the character Korra. The show caters to an older generation who otherwise would never be introduced to Avatar the Last Airbender. I knew another dude 40 years old who prefers Korra to Avatar. I was EXACTLY 12 years old when I saw Aang for the first time after school on Nickolodean. What else was a typical urban kid to do after school? Older people in their late 30's and older love Korra and I believe the writers knew that. They created Korra because, like those older jerk friends I had, they care only for themselves. They are selfish and want to hear only what she wants to hear and if you're not that person, she fights you. I think The Legend of Korra is brilliant because it shows that more people relate with Korra who is a shrewd and problematic person who doesn't recognize her behavior. People 40 ad 50 years old don't like Aang because "it's a kid show" to them. Yet, Korra and her 40 year old fans are the kids. Aang is a better story yes not my point.
ATLA is obviously more well rounded, but we know the writers had more time to create and develop the story.
Imo the writing in LoK is sharper and if the writers had more freedom and time to cook it would be even better than ATLA. It did turn out pretty good though despite the network interferences. I prefer LoK, the themes and the characters resonate with me so much more.
Perfect way to describe LoK is that it’s a “flawed gem”. It’s a fun series, but it comes short in many areas. But still it’s a solid 8/10 show in my opinion.
great video man, but i also wanted to hear your opinion on bending and how its changed over the years after the 100 year war, and also what you think about other questionable changes to the bending system
Realistically, i think a big reason why team avatar didnt feel the same here is because of the shortened season length. In ATLA the longer seasons really gave us (and the writers) the opportunity to glimpse into the lives and intricacies of these characters by going on sidequests and having thematically rich stories and conflicts that gave us chances to learn about these characters and watching them grow together. Meanwhile in Korra the character depth takes a backseat to all the bombastic storytelling and world building they wanted to do with the symbolism and ideologies they explored in each season. I think its no surprise that things really came together in season 3 when we finally have built up some sort of understanding and affection for these characters. If Korra had been given atleast 4 more episodes per season i think it would’ve made a difference, imagine if they had 20+ like avatar. All the time that couldve been spent deepening their characters instead of having to make bad story decisions by cramming them in whenever they got the chance and adding characterizations when they could and not building them up like they should. It just makes it seem out of place and i believe Korra wouldve been on par with ATLA if it had the same opportunity it did.
While I think that played a role in it I think it’s just the different approach they took to the story. The last Airbender is very character driven while Legend of Korra is more narrative driven. If legend of korra was more character driven I believe they could’ve done it. I seen shows with similar runtimes be able to do it also.
I disagree with the idea that Korra lacks arcs it’s just not where you 😮would typically expect to find one. instead of the characters and new team avatar having a very deep and powerful arc it’s instead given too the public and the very world around them. I’d give an example or two but honestly I’m drunk and want to go back to chilling so I won’t. But I do suggest going and watching the show with this mental framework and you will see exactly what I’m talking about.
Maybe I’ll come back to this tomorrow and come back to it. Might also finish the video too ☺️
Nah most of Korra's characters were flat as paper.
To be honest Korra getting her bending back at the end of season 1 doesn't bother me because Amon technically wasn't really taking bending away he was using blood bending to chi block people if they had properly explained it I don't think there would have been as much of an issue. The thing is if they had left it blocked it would have been Aang's journey all over again when she already knows the other elements as well as her arc for that season was already completed so I don't know for sure if it would have been as interesting as you may think.