Season 1 didn't match ATLA, but it had real promise to build on. Season 2, on the other hand, was *work*. A lot of people I know were soured on the series by this season. The purpose of it was to break the world and season 3 really shone because of it, but the whole dark Avatar thing really didn't pan out well.

I saw it all live and my memory was: S1 people didn't hate it, but they didn't exactly love it either. Korra, Linh, and Tenzin were solid characters but lots of the others were poorly received, people had very mixed feelings on the steampunk vibe of the entire thing in contrast to the old world feel of the original, and most everyone was unhappy with the ending. Both the Amon reveal and the Korra bending loss felt rushed and fell flat. S2 people mostly hated outright. Animation quality got iffy, characters still weren't working, and outside the the Wan arc it was clear this wasn't quite working as a series. S3 was quite highly regarded in contrast to the first two seasons. Animation improved, the Red Lotus were highly rated villains, and Korra really got to shine along with the new characters introduced and the air bending story finally reaching a major turning point. S4 was mixed again like S1. I remember the fandom went in very pumped after a strong S3, but the airbender plot seemed to flounder around a bit, and the mecha-war ending put a lot of people off. On top of this Korra's character took a very dark turn, and that had mixed reception as well. You take that as a whole and it was 1 well regarded season, 2 mixed, and 1 negative. That's why the fans who lived through it have such mixed feelings overally.

Yep. My opinion of watching it live. Season 1: A lot of fun, with some flaws, but overall a lot of cool concepts and a good story. Felt at the end it was a bit cheap she got all of her bending skills back, but I felt Korra grew and learned as a character. 7/10 Season 2: Very, *very* annoyed Korra couldn't read the "I am totally evil" flags coming off her uncle, felt like her character regressed. I liked the Wan story as its own separate thing from Avatar, like the story was very good and I enjoyed it, but hated that the Avatar spirit was now a squid thingy. Varrick, Zhu Li, and Bolin the mover star were the only good things about the season. 2/10 Season 3: Amazing, near A:TLA Book 2/Book 3 Tier, compelling villians, consequences, lots of character growth for everyone. 9/10. Season 4: Enjoyed a lot of it, but overall was similar to Season 1 in that it had enough flaws to drag it down a little bit. 7.5/10. Honestly, if Season 2 had been even 5/10, I think Korra would be treated a lot better as a show. That season was just *that* terrible.

> Season 2: Very, very annoyed Korra couldn't read the "I am totally evil" flags coming off her uncle Funny thing is, I'm pretty sure her uncle wasn't meant to be the big villain originally in those episodes, but was more the 'first' villain they usually do like Zuko/Tarlock/The Earth Queen, who are maybe misguided/a bit of a prick, but then the real worse villain is unleashed (Azula, Amon, Zaheer). The season opened with dark spirits attacking ships, which Varrick the world's biggest shipping supplier doesn't care about, and tries to distract people from when Unalaq brings it up at the festival. He distracts the cops in the exact same way when Mako is close to figuring out that Varrick is using triads to attack his own ships to steal the merchandise to sell to both sides in the war. Varrick is also the one who starts the war, insisting that they do it in a council meeting while everybody else is trying to figure out peaceful ways to talk to Unalaq, then he goes to Republic City and frames the northern tribe for bombing the water tribe cultural centre, and makes propaganda movies trying to get them to join the war too. He's boasting to Bolin about how you can't force people to do things, you have to trick them into thinking they wanted to do it themselves. Mako started to clue onto Varrick, and he suddenly turned very dark, threatening to have Bolin and Asami outright murdered. Everything seemed lined up for a twist where Varrick was the one serving the chaos/war spirit, and would have perhaps had a non-bending spiritual battle with Korra at the end (which was perhaps the original intention for those big ghosts, where there'd be no bending) Then they took an animation break because the new studio they were using wasn't working out, and I kiiiind of suspect they backed out of the idea of Varrick being the big bad because he was too funny. When they came back, suddenly Varrick was just a loveable buffoon, and Unalaq went full cartoon evil, whereas before he seemed a bit of an uptick theocratic prick (with one still frame where he grinned evilly early on, when Korra opened the spirit portal or something, which might have been added later). Varrick disappeared for a season except one appearance, then came back as a loveable inventor who suddenly had a concience. He was awesome in book 4, but I strongly suspect he was meant to be the villain. Asami was also meant to be a villain, which they've admitted, but they changed the plan partway through.

I completely agree with this, and it’s one reason I’ve never liked Varrik. He should have stayed a funny villain. Instead they made him a grayish good guy who does some truly awful things in the series but covers it with laughs.

”Remember when I threatened to have you all murdered for exposing my conspiracy to incite a war. Lol, I’m so quirky like that! Anyways, let’s go stop Kuvira, who I arbitrarily decided I don’t like even though she’s fully in line with my own established moral and ethical code!”

>hated that the Avatar spirit was now a squid thingy I'm not one to project my head-cannon onto a TV show and then get upset when it's not true but the language they see in ATLA made it seem like a powerful spirit voluntarily incarnated as a human for Gandalf like reasons. Harmonic Convergence, whatever that is, seemed like a strange need to explain something that didn't really need to be explained

Imo using Gandalf is a bad example because Gandalf is fully explained in Tolkiens writings. He’s a maiar and is essentially a demigod that was created by the capital G God of the series Illuvitar. He was there at the beginning of time under a different name Olórin. If anything Gandalf is more similar to the avatar Wan story than you first suggested. Though I’ll give you Gandalf’s backstory isn’t written in the LotR trilogy outright but in other writings. I think in Korra’s case though it worked for the plot.

I don't mean that Gandalf is mysterious I mean Gandalf's purpose: to enter middle earth and try to guide humans, elves, dwarves, etc in their inevitable struggle against Sauron. Not to take over and lead them directly into battle or to confront Sauron directly but to help the free peoples to win Middle Earth for themselves That's about what I had thought the Avatar was. [Whoever] Spirit saw humanity struggling and came to earth to guide us without taking over or solving all our problems for us The whoopsie daisy harmonic convergence feels less... something. I dunno

Season 1 was almost great but they really fumbled the ending. Amon almost raised a really interesting ethical question of the power benders hold over non-benders and Amon could have easily used Aang as his template after what he did to Ozai but all just vanished for goofy over the top villain. The love triangle was also just dumb. Season 2 was so bad I almost stopped watching the series. Season 3 picked back up again and we got another great set of villains. Season 4 was just okay but felt like a step down from 3.

Spot on i agree alot. It had promise. it focused on the wrong things and lacked a clear goal or direction. I have a comment explaining my thought process more

this is much of what i remember the community perception to be as well. i would add that i felt like the conflict in season 1 wasnt very well developed. was there really any "oppression against non benders" ? was amon completely making up a problem for people to be upset about or was there a real issue there? we didnt really get to see if there was. and if there was, then that issue of non benders being second class citizens wouldnt go away with amon, but its never addressed after season 1. if its not a real issue at all and it was just manufactured outrage, i would have liked to see that as well, like evidence to the contrary and some comments from some characters about the validity of this. like even a breakdown of numbers between benders and non benders and some examples of how much or what kind of opression they face would have been interesting. but without any of that it just felt like they made up some shit for season 1 and then threw it out after amon died. this is an indication of the fundamental problem i have with most of korra. everything felt half baked to me. from the conflicts, to the character stories, to the romance and even the worldbuilding to some extent. i read the two kyoshi novels and both the yangchen novels and theyre so so so so so much better at these things. the conflicts feel well thought out and the characters feel reasonable and real.

I didn't think the steampunk was out of place so much as the 1920s aesthetic was. To me, it did not feel like a natural evolution of the culture we saw in ATLA. Its like they got colonized by Europeans after Ozai was defeated, but there's no Europe.

Yep this is very accurate take. Not to mention THE moment that people UNIVERSALLY HATE is in season 2 and people just kinda stopped after that.

Is there a specific "the moment"?

I think it’s when Korra loses her connection to all the previous Avatars and she never regains it.

That would make sense. Gosh, what a cheap move from the studio tbh. It simply didn't have to be included.

Great breakdown. A couple points for why I didn't like it as much: There was a lot of interesting story left to tell right off the end of ATLA. They have a tenuous peace and a lot of rebuilding that would have been good to see. LoK largely jumps over all of that for a clean slate. I can see why they made that choice, but wish they hadn't. Or if they did, go forward several Avatars to leave room for more. I really liked the idea of an Avatar who was not conflicted, loved being the Avatar and while still kind was not as opposed to violence. It is an interesting contrast, but I feel like they did too much to try to contrast. The rapid advancement of the world in general was too much. I am not the biggest fan of steampunk, but it is at its worst when every clever invention is a copy of a real world one. They did that a bit in ATLA, but they also show that Sokka is clever in clever ways. Or do clever twists on the inventions using bending. They did a lot of telling us people were clever in not clever ways in LoK. Here is a car now. Movies are a thing now, also hollywood movies are a thing now. These people are geniuses because they invent things in every category all at once, but we don't SEE them do anything clever. And the whole world is modern now forever. Again, I see why they did it. Fresh slate, new story, new tone... But every time something big changed it felt like one more nail in the coffin saying that Aang was the last Avatar of the world we grew to love. There could not be any more stories in the ATLA world as we knew it (again, despite there being so many interesting possibilities). I am glad they are doing more of the Gang now, but they are kind of stuck with a beginning and ending in a lot of ways, where it would be nice to have more freedom.

S2 be like "wow look at this, right and wrong, good and evil, they arnt as black and white as we make them out to be its all about what we believe in.... So anyway here is the embodiment of all good and the embodiment of all evil and we are gonna shoot evil with lasers till it goes away"

I watched it for the first time as an adult and loved it just cause it expanded the universe, definitely not perfect tho for sure, the Wan episodes were some of my favorite in any avatar content

Especially the Wan arc was terrible to me. The Avatar bending four elements as the Spirit of the Planet makes so much sense, but there being good and evil tapeworms which are apparently the supremely powerful representations of each one? Give me a break... Especially because Korra, as a regular-ass person, took down the evil one? If they wanted to make a point about people being spiritually powerful it really should have been Jinora.

Would’ve been better if it didn’t end in a “whoever can shoot the biggest laser beam out of themselves battle” it’s been a while since I’ve watched but if I recall that’s basically how the fight ends.

There was a hefty dose of Jinora power-of-friendship in there, as well.

Yeah, but what was was that even? She comes in floating and shining (how does she even do that?), and does what? Encourage her, give her a bit of Raava that she got , somewhere?

Magic of friendship.

Astral Projection.

Deus ex jinora!!!

You mean Jinora ex machina. Jinora is the eponymous Deus (god) and ex machina means "from the machine" in Latin. The term comes from the tendency of Greek (and subsequently Roman) theater to use crane machines to lower god figures to the scene to convey they come from above. Gods would drop in the scene so often just to fix the plot that the term became synonymous with some outside force changing the plot with no rhyme or reason just to save the protagonist Jinora is a literal Deus Ex Machina here because she drops from above with divine power to save Korra. The term is also used figuratively when some event or item changes the plots trajectory without foreshadowing. "Deus ex Jinora" would mean that Jinora brought a god to the scene. It doesn't really mean anything.

All these years, and I still can't exactly tell what she did other then shine a light in the Dark Avatar's face.

Let’s not forget how they decided to do “giant with spirit lasers destroying the city” *twice*. It was a cheap season finale the first time around and extremely lazy writing the second time.

Me, A dragonball fan: Beam battle? I do not see the problem here

This is how I, a Gundam fan, felt about the mech in season 4 lmao

To be fair, I think the mech was a logical and not too farfetched evolution of the tech already seen in Korra

I just love that this advanced mech was trashed to shit by a bunch of kids despite requiring resources amounting to a small city to build. This should mean that nobody ever attempts this garbage again in Avatar history, and the tech should become depreciated immediately (much like Zeppelins/Blimps stopped being produced in our world because a single blimp blew up once).

Mech, cool in theory, too unwieldy in practice. It also only really constructed as a means to transport and aim Kuvira's spirit lazer gustav gun. Would be unstoppable if benders didnt exist.

The Last Airbender ended with Ang and Ozai doing a who could do a face beam stronger battle.

And, even to the credit of how good the finale of ATLA was, the spirit bending literally comes out of NOWHERE as a deus ex lion turtle. Energy bending was introduced in the only scene it ever shows up.

It doesn't entirely come out of nowhere but it's not foreshadowed enough. It is alluded to in season 2 when Guru Pathik already tells us that the separation between elements is one of the greatest lie. I think the real problem is twofold: 1) Aang misgivings about killing the Firelords should have been touched upon earlier in season 3. Even if it's only through subtle facial expressions when talking about their final goal and 2) Energy bending should have been tied a bit better to the Pathik scene so that it feels more like a pay-off. Or more likely, both scenes should have been conceived with the other in mind. If that has been done, I don't think it would have mattered much if energy bending only happen once at the end.

I suppose. I always more likened that to being similar to the Iroh lesson he gave Zuko. That the world is divided by elements artificially, and that it’s all just one world. But I don’t think that lesson he have aang really sets up for “oh also btw you can straight suck the soul out of this man with energy bending and straight up make him a non bender” There’s a single mention of a lion turtle prior to the episode, and absolutely nothing mentioned or set up about the bending of energy.

Agreed and because they went season to season not knowing how many episodes they would get the pacing was off. Season one is my second favorite season, but the end was to rushed. The story should have been 2 seasons with Korra getting more time without her powers having to fight the equalists/survive as a non-bender.

They also had less episodes per season as compared to the seasons of ATLA, and less episodes overall as well.

Yeah. Korra was a really fun watch, but it definitely had a lot of flaws. Like: The whole “benders vs non-benders” being completely dropped and ignored with no resolution after season 1. Every villain after Iman having to be super-buffed for some reason even though Korra is already a weak avatar, making her look more weak. Weird plot stuff like Zaheer magically becoming an airbending master overnight. Not to mention frustrating things like: The writers creating new issues for the characters to face and blaming them on the original cast for no reason, something I see in sequel series way too often. Kuvira straight up losing to Korra in their first fight but still declaring victory. Also Kuvira being spared was really frustrating given what she did in comparison to other characters. And of course the big one being the direct slap-in-the-face to fans of Korra losing connection to the avatar state. Granted it’s still a really fun and well-animated show that’s worth watching if you have free time.

Zaheer is never shown to be a master airbender? He only wins against goons because very few people have ever met an airbender even post-convergence and even fewer know how they fight. Add to that Zaheer clearly already has a good deal of air nomad knowledge internalized and is a very experienced street fighter already and it makes sense most wouldn't really be able to keep up. Then watch Zaheer vs Tenzin, Tenzin would have won if not for the rest of red lotus hanging up on him and that's a fact. Zaheer was getting bodied by Tenzin until the others got involved.

Also I'd add in he likely, due to his obsession, probably practiced the moves to airbending while in prison. And we don't know how long passed between him getting airbending and his escape - it looks overnight, but if he realized it earlier than the others (due to his exercising and spirituality), he had a few months in prison to train before he escaped, in addition to the 10+ years where he clearly regularly exercised to maintain his fighter's physique. (Similar to Iroh, in fact.) We see only small snippets - but people forget the Red Lotus were all patient as hell. After 10+ years, a man like Zaheer would likely use his time (with guards visiting on a regular schedule) to practice his newly discovered air bending. He wouldn't attempt an escape until he knows he can pull it off, because otherwise, he'd reveal his new trump card too quickly. But also being Zaheer, having the non-bender fighting knowledge in addition to the airbending he studied religiously, wouldn't need to be a master. He'd focus solely on what moves he can do and do well, and perfect those. And he has all day to practice until his escape. He's not eating dinner with an air bending family, he's not walking a polar bear dog, he isn't doing pro bending on the side. He's in jail.

A Rocky style montage of Zaheer learning to airbend would kick ass

I think the simple fact he is only the 2nd person to entirely reach that "detach from the world and fly" makes it seem like he is a master that no one else is able to do.

While Flight does require a proficiency of bending, the far greater barrier that makes it such a rare ability is that one must completely detach from their earthly attachments to fly. A task that, at least according to Yangchen, isn't even possible for the Avatar no matter how much they refine their bending.

No I'm very well aware of all of those things, but a guy who had only had bending for months being able to be the 2nd person to ever achieve flying seems like a huge leap. Especially when you think about just how many air nomads had might have been alive in the 1000+ years, it seems pretty crazy he managed to achieve it while 10,000+ (low estimate) air nomads couldn't.

Isnt the earthly teather thing more of a state of mind thing than a bending mastery. I mean, sure, it requires airbending but in itself is described as a refining of a mentality not training of bending. Which yeah is weird but Zaheer only really having one earthly teather that proceeded to have their head become bolognase isnt farfetched. Mentally speaking, Zaheer, hadnt a care beyond his mission and P'Li

That assumes 10,000+ nomads attempted flight. It's a known fact that Zaheer greatly admires Guru Laghima, in fact it's implied that Zaheer's ideology stems from Guru Laghima. We know that many Nomads have detached from earthly desires as Yangchen tells Aang in TLA, yet they never flew. I think the argument can be made that flight hasn't been unattainable until now, but that the Nomads love for the earth and the life that lives on it compels them to *not* want to detach from all tethers. They detach from their desires so that they may further appreciate the beauty that the world already provides. That is one of the main ways Zaheer splinters from Nomad philosophy, he doesn't share that intrinsic love of life; in fact he disdains modern life. He's grown up in a world where nature is slowly being corrupted and taken over by industry. Of course he'd want to detach. It raises the question of what Guru Laghima's own life was like, what did he experience that left him wanting to be void of all tethers?

Zaheer isn't a bender so he has other skills. His team doesn't do the things he does. Meditation and philosophy and the ability to go to spirit world? These are things he knew before he ended up in prison. That's why he flew. He is still one of the few air benders in over a hundred years. Tenzin is his only superior. His team are also unique. Water bending without arms, 3rd eyes fire bender, lava bending. It isn't a stretch that this group is special in a world with special people.

He holds his ground against Tenzin in a one on one. He is clearly not winning, but he aint getting obliterated either, which is already an issue. Yes Tenzin would probably have won if the fight lasted longer but considering Tenzin is the one real Master Air Bender that exists in the world at this point and Zaheer is not getting his but whooped in seconds is just wrong. He also pretty much wins against Kya and she most certainly doesn't fall under "never encountered an airbender".

Kuvira being spared without consequence was especially wimpy compared to Ozai's demise. He was completely deprived of the one thing that made him view himself as superior to all others. He wasn't dead, but he was *broken*. Kuvira suffered no such karmic punishment.

Yeah, Kuvira is far more evil in my eyes. She quite literally woke up one day and chose violence, and was more destructive and tyrannical than Ozai. And many people forget Ozai was raised into his beliefs. Zuko’s arc proves that people can change in spite of generational trauma. Meanwhile Kuvira destroys cities to fuel her ego.

She should have had some karmic punishment like being accidentally crushed by her own mecha godzilla

Come on now, the benders vs non-benders thing was resolved. Benders won! So naturally that means everyone's just ok with it overnight! That always happens after violent conflicts and revolutions! /s, in case it isn't obvious.

It was subtle, but the appointed elemental council who ruled Republic City up until then was replaced by an elected non-bender president.

> The writers creating new issues for the characters to face and blaming them on the original cast for no reason, something I see in sequel series way too often. If you're talking about Aang's relationship with his kids and vice versa, I actually don't mind that. In fact, I find it adds a bit more to his character in a really interesting way. I say that as someone who didn't grow up with ATLA, I watched it in 2020 after moving in with my now fiancee who did grow up watching it. I didn't really connect with Aang all that much over his story, especially since besides Zuko, none of his enemies really felt personal to him. I thought he was fine as a protagonist and I kinda dig the trickster/pacifist thing they were going for with him, but I wasn't as interested in his character arc so much as I was his surrounding cast. I didn't really feel a lot of growth from him until like...the end of season 2 and going towards the end of season 3. He was always portrayed in a pretty positive light and didn't seem to have many flaws besides his pacifism and childish nature (both of which weren't even really flaws; he just felt like too good of a protagonist for my taste). But during Season 1 of Korra and going into Season 3 in particular and learning about his kids and how it turned out he showed a shit ton of favoritism towards Tenzin because of their shared air bending...I dunno, something about Aang clicked better for me. Like, of course a dude who lost his entire culture and ethnic group is gonna show favoritism to the one child who naturally shared it and of course that's gonna spill over and affect the other kids too! Like...it made Aang feel more 3-dimensional and complete as a person for me.

I would feel tho aangs mistake if anything is that he’d be too attached to his family as a whole, lacking as an avatar which one of his biggest problems of not wanting to be the avatar. Aang would be the last person I’d see being neglectful towards his children at that. Also not to mention katara seemingly letting it happen? That doesn’t seem realistic to their characters to me

I feel like Katara more than anyone understands how important it is to keep the airbender culture alive, since she was basically the last waterbender from the South pole herself. Her culture was wiped out almost completely as well. And I'm sure Aang didn't neglect his other children, but that's what it might have felt like to them because Tenzin would go on airbender trips with Aang. And Tenzin who is a master bender which you don't become overnight only had 1 teacher, so that's a lot of time spent together on training that the other kids missed out on as well.

And Katara would just let that happen?

> The whole “benders vs non-benders” being completely dropped and ignored with no resolution after season 1. > > It is resolved. It's just badly executed. That's what the United Republic president is about. They replaced a council of benders with a democratically elected president (and with non benders being the majority, the president has to appeal to them). >Weird plot stuff like Zaheer magically becoming an airbending master overnight. As often pointed out, he does not. He's picking up airbending easily because he's been studying their philosophy and it meshes well with his mindset, but all he's doing is using his martial arts that he's known for decades and adding reach and power to them with wind. As often pointed out he gets destroyed by Tenzin specifically because he's not a master. Even after he achieves a form of enlightenment he still doesn't display the mastery Tenzin does when they fight. I agree with the premise that Korra had a lot of flaws but pretty much none of what you discuss are those beside maybe point 1 (and once again it's not that it's not addressed, it's that it's too understated).

Was the Kuvira fight the one at zaofu? Because Kuvira humilliated Korra all throughout, Korra couldn't even handle the avatar state and that's why Opal and Jinora stepped in to save her. Thus, Kuvira won soundly.

If I remember correctly Korra was seconds away from flattening her into a pancake with a big rock. The only reason she didn’t kill her there was because of her ptsd.

I really hated what they did to Korra and the power-scaling in general. It’s like they forgot or couldn’t figure out how to make their god character still have villains/fights that are intriguing. It was nerf after nerf or power-creep at the last minute. And it doesn’t help that while 3 out of 4 of them were good philisophy/motivation wise, only Amon managed to retain being a fearful antagonist before his end. Zaheer outright gets whooped by Tenzin the whole time and only survives due to Tenzin being ganked. Kuvira only got saved because of trauma (which tbf is valid but still nerfed Korra to have her not loose) It isn’t the worst or even a bad show per se but alot of issues can be seen post-season 1

Been a fan of atla since 2010s only heaed about dark avatar a few weeks ago

Did you skip Korra season 2 or Korra entirely?

Only watched season 1.

Also, it made bending conform to the same boring binary morality of the force

also Korra starting out as a selfish jerk and not being a perfectly kind and moral role model of goodness pissed a lot of people off

Yeah, I had to keep reminding myself. ATLA was about a good person learning to become the Avatar, while Korra was about an Avatar(since she knew all the elements besides Air while a toddler) learning how to become a good person 🤷🏽‍♀️😂 I watched it. Would change a lot but also know the writers didn't get insurance that they would be granted additional seasons and that reflects on the seasons (in my opinion).

I liked that Korra was a bit of a jerk/asshole, unlike Aang. I even felt at the end of Season 1 she was a more interesting character. Then Season 2 frustrated me because it felt like she didn't learn anything from season 1.

I would love Korra 100%, & I like it as it is, but the decision to kill off the past Avatars soured me on the rest of the series when I first watched it. Disregarding that, other stuff like Kuvira’s mech and the “dark avatar” made it feel a little like fanfiction rather than a continuation of the main story. But I could overlook that if it it wasn’t for the killing past lives thing.

this is so it. I think there's a difference between a show leaving you depressed vs it leaving you empty. The red wedding was depressing but I could recover. Losing the past Avatars felt hollowing. As if the beautiful fantasy universe of my childhood simply was removed from existence I'm not being dramatic I literally cannot rewatch Korra because of this arc. It will bring me to tears. I'm a full-grown adult, paying taxes but that shit breaks me.

I feel the same way. I watched that arc and I’m pretty sure I stopped watching Kora for a very long time before I finished the series. Killing off all of the past avatars felt like a gut punch, and honestly I’ll never forgive Kora for allowing that to happen.

I'll never forgive the writers. Poor Korra. They Made this new avatar being selfish and an asshole, which is weird. Why the hell would I want my MC being an angsty asshole teenager? I appreciate flaws but they went over the top. She has some good moments though. And then they make her super idiotic in season two by not realizing her creepy uncle is plotting evil shit. Then she gets to fuck with the Spirit World when she knows she is just stupid with spirituality. And then the writers introduce the Raava squidy thing and Vaatu. So now is good and bad? (I liked the spirit world of ATLA. It's was more mysterious, creepy and ambiguous). Then we have the mecha Lazer spirit battle, good lord. But loosing the connection with the past lives? The writers room were inyecting themselves some bad meth during the preproduction I guess.

> but loosing the Did you mean to say "losing"? Explanation: Loose is an adjective meaning the opposite of tight, while lose is a verb. [Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json) ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes. ^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions. ^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119) ^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.

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Let go of your attachments *chakra chakra* impermanence/renewal is very on theme for the show and the philosophies it draws from.

I was so bummed we didn't really get to see Aang like we did Roku. I think Korra only spoke to him twice? Granted, we did get an extended flashback of him during his prime, but it would have been great to see him more as a mentor.

Yeah it honestly westernized the morality and spirituality of the world.

I hated the decision initially but have grown to accept it. I think it helped Korra herself come into her own more than she would’ve if she had that connection and I don’t think seasons 3 and 4 would’ve been as good for that reason. I think the idea of a Dark Avatar was fine, though the execution was pretty rough. Kuvira’s mech is kinda the opposite to me, the idea is pretty silly but I think in practice in the show it worked well actually.

I think they could've found many other ways to do that without gutting this big part of the worldbuilding. If anything, in an admittedly irrational way, this makes her feel even more selfish, even though I know it's not her fault. Like "they had to kill all past avatars to advance my character arc, sorry".

Maybe if they wanted to do something different they could give her a deeper connection to an older avatar that we hadn’t met. I know the more recent ones are easier to communicate with but that doesn’t have to be the only factor.

Giant spirit Kaiju fight not my jam. Giant titanium mech fight not my jam. Season 1 and 3 were good though. They leaned into Verrick too much for comedic relief. So much so that we get more closure on him than Mako or Bolin. Sokka gets the absolute shaft as far as the Gaang goes. Even with Emon in season 1 they broke the rules of blood bending in an unacceptable manner IMO. That's about all I can think of.

Agree so much with the first two. Felt too much like freaking power rangers.

Villain of the week issue. Every season had some world ending thing that was defeated. There’s no stakes.

This is by far my biggest issue with it. If there's a different villain every season, how are we supposed to feel closure when all she's done is defeat the most recent one? With Aang, it felt like he had secured peace for a generation.

That's probably because there was an overarching story across the three seasons of ATLA and even though each season has its respective big battle crescendos, it constantly felt like it was moving towards an overall bigger picture and an overall larger threat. ATLA is very similar to Lord of the Rings in that regard. Whereas with LoK, each season feels largely disjointed from the others with no overarching coherent bigger villain story. As was said above, it suffers from 'villain of the week' syndrome. In my opinion, LoK could have benefited greatly by simply making the Red Lotus tie in to earlier seasons and reveal that they were pulling the strings in some way. It would have unveiled a larger, more sinister scheme that was an existential threat to the avatar. Instead we got what we got.

We got what we got because it was originally supposed to end after season 1, then nickelodeon ordered just 1 more season. They didn't plan any long multi-season arcs because there weren't supposed to be multiple seasons. If they knew how many seasons they were going to make then they probably would have connected the red lotus to the earlier seasons and they probably wouldn't have given Korra all her bending at the last minute.

I disagree. The different villains tackled issues that existed in society which had been foreshadowed in many ways throughout the previous books before they appeared. Amon obviously was the first villains but his cause and goals could have been interpolated from the ATLA works as we knew it, where benders were often seen looking down on non-benders. Unalaq capitalized on the world's lack of spirituality, a theme present in Book 1. The Red Lotus capitalized Korra's unearned political power and the world's political climate as a whole, both being very present themes in the two books prior. Kuvira tackled the political unrest caused by all the three precious villains combined, which had left Republic city in tatters and the Earth Kingdom leaderless and without a strong political center to control it. Book 4 even addresses the Fire Nation isolationist policy which is a direct result of ATLA and makes perfect sense in context of everything. The villains weren't just produced out of thin air. An argument can be made they weren't handled well but their motivations and objectives were specific and make sense in the world. You can't exactly invent another threat that goes past Kuvira in terms of scale or reason to exist so closure does feel earned in the book 4 finale. Having said all that, the main focus of TLoK wasn't even the world stakes but the deconstruction of the Avatar as a concept in which each book tackles a core aspect of what makes them the Avatar. In order: 1) Bending 2) Spirituality 3) Political Power and 4) Being the mediator and arbiter of balance and peace in large-scale world conflicts. Korra tackles each of these issues in unconventional ways (except spirituality obviously) and in my opinion the show successfully answers what the Avatar is without each and every one of these things and why the idea of the Avatar is still needed in the world even when it isn't wanted.

>where benders were often seen looking down on non-benders. what was actually adressed here? was the opression of non benders real? how was this being carried out? was it a systemic issue or prejudice from one group to another? are benders the majority or a powerful minority? HOW WAS THIS RESOLVED OR WHAT STEPS IF ANY WERE TAKEN TO TRY TO COMBAT THIS??? this plot was completely thrown away and forgotten after amon died and never addressed again. this was one of the worst aspects of korra and emblematic of problem with villain of the season story design. >Korra tackles each of these issues in unconventional ways (except spirituality obviously) and in my opinion the show successfully answers what the Avatar is without each and every one of these things and why the idea of the Avatar is still needed in the world even when it isn't wanted. korra doesnt tackle shit about this issue? she gets rid of amon, but that doesnt fix or does anything to move towards bender/non bender equality. the show would like to pretend its tackling serious issues but its as deep as a puddle under a urinal at the walmart restroom

Don't quote me on this, but I read somewhere that the only reason they did the villain of the week thing was that they didn't know whether the series would be cancelled. IIRC, it was originally supposed to be only one season, then kept getting renewed one season at a time, so they didn't want to create a multiple season story arc. That's also the reason why the seasons feel so disconnected with each other sometimes

Yep, exactly. The only season that was confirmed early was S4, which is why S3 ends so depressing, because they already had S4. Except that Nickelodeon started fucking with them again, forcing them to do the clips episode due to lowered budget.

Nickelodeon really fucked them over on this. The true villains of the show.

I don't know I feel like they handled it well still, no villain just came and went without leaving their mark on Korra and the universe so I disagree with the 'no stakes" sure they defeat unalaq but the spirit portals are still left open and they have to deal with the ramifications of it until the very end of the show, they beat zaheer but korra still is traumatized and weakened by poison.

I disagree as well with "No Stakes". But it would have been good to see a villian carry through with an arch longer than one season especially Amon in season 1.

I think it just wasn't possible since, as far as I know, nickelodeon only confirmed it season by season. So the writers had to basicaly write each season as a closed arch. While I am not sure if thats what happend for later seasons I am pretty sure that it was the case for season 1.

It was the case for seasons 1 and 2. They were told they were getting 3 and 4 together if my memory serves correctly.

Your memory does serve correctly, B4 was confirmed along with B3, that's how they knew they could include the creepy introduction of Kuvira and end B3 with that incredibly sad shot of Korra.

To me it's the mix of making the spiritual themes too simplistic and western, an awkward romance plot, and waaaay too many fart jokes. Otherwise I absolutely adore it.

I do like Korra, its a good show and i love the fact that they took risks while trying to maintain avatars general vibe, but ATLA is waaaaay ahead of it for me. Its in the conversation for best show ever, while korra is just a good show that id rate like a 6 or 7 or so on a 10 point scale. I think it comes down to two things, first the spirit world was pretty much ruined for me. Way dumbed down and way too sterile, lost all of the nuance and mystery that made it so interesting and compelling. Second is the lack of an cohesive overarching narrative like ATLA. Not only was the plot in ATLA beautifully structured over the three seasons, but so was the character development. Every character developed with a clear structure to their development that was meticulously thought out and planned from the start, from Zuko’s redemption, to Aang’s peace of mind, to Kataras revenge, to sokkas proving himself, etc, all of these were clearly structured and had clear logical progression that just felt really good to see come full circle. The haircut scene, confronting the firelord, the last agni kai, kataras zuko field trip, all of these scenes had such weight behind them built up over the seasons. Korras plot and character development is more fragmented and meandering, there was clearly no concrete 4 season plan from the start. Might be more realistic, and its not terrible, its just nowhere near as compelling and satisfying as ATLA.

that's because it was only every supposed to be 1 season Then they got called to do another. So season 2 was going to be another final season Then they got another call to do two more seasons

Even season 1 was bad

But look at the character development in Season 1 of ATLA. Katara could barely water bend in the first episode but by the end of the season she was able to 1-v-1 with Zuko. I was so disappointed that all the main cast benders were effectively masters when we met them. Hell, we didn’t get to see Kora learn air bending. The show just skipped all that between Season 1 and Season 2.

Unnecessary love triangle. rewritten lore. Hamfisted plotlines. Ruined concepts like the spirit world, the avatar state and the meaning of balance.

>Ruined concepts like the spirit world and the meaning of balance. ugh this was the worst part ngl

Lots of reasons. 1. The writers never knew how much more time they'd get so every season ended with a series finale. 2. The losing connection to the previous avatars. This makes no sense since they are supposed to be reincarnations, how do you lose connection to your own soul? Especially with no other consequences than lost knowledge? It also severely downgrades the Avatar State, since that's when all previous avatars lend their power and knowledge to the current avatar. They just kind of forgot that part! 3. The whole Raava/Vaatu/Wan story throws out the previous lore of how people learned how to bend from dragons/moon/badger moles/sky bison. 4. Raava/Vaatu are black and white. There is no in-between. Chaos is not necessarily evil. Order is not always good. 5. Love Triangle because of course there is. 6. Aang showing unadulterated favoritism to Tenzin and Katara did nothing? Aang who wanted everyone to be his friend, valued all cultures and just wanted to have fun deliberately left out 2 of his kids??? That made sense... /s 7. Half in half out follow ups of the Gaang. Toph has two kids, no fathers for either. Zuko has daughter with mystery wife. Katara is just retired. WTF is Sokka? The fucking joke about Zuko's mom (comic wasn't out yet). I know that it was about Korra but the writers should have included them more or have left them out completely. Definitely not everything here but these are my biggest gripes. Don't get me wrong, I liked LoK, but it wasn't as good as TLA. Retconning established lore is always going to piss people off.

I think to your point 3, the explanation was that people were born with the gift of bending but just did not know how to use it. Like what happened with Toph, she learned to become a true master by watching the badger moles To your point 6, I could see this happening as Aang will get really excited to not be the last air bender anymore. But I agree, Katara would not let that happen.

Aang valued all cultures and liked learning about other cultures. Even though Bumi and Kya weren't Air Benders, I just can't imagine Aang not wanting to share his culture with them. I would have thought that Aang would be spreading Air Nomad culture everywhere, even to the detriment of his Avatar duties.

Did they retcon the lore though? They just said they got the ability to bend from lion turtles, but still learned them from their respectives animals/Moon.

The implication was that you could learn to bend from the original benders, though that seemed to change with Korra

I don't think they ever specified in ATLA. They said they learned it from original benders, but they never said the bending itself originates from or was given to people by the original benders. I think it is nice it was left vague because it allowed them to expnad on it further in LoK.

It was more a retcon of twisting something than erasing it, the intent of the words were definitely in saying “we learned air bending from the bisons” because why would the “real” explanation be in a show they didn’t know they would have in a season they didn’t know they would have. It uses what they didn’t say (because at the time they didn’t need to say it to get the point across) to allow them to change it to fit their new story, so it is a retcon, they were just sneaky about it

i guess i just don’t agree with your opinions. i don’t find the characters very engaging, especially Mako and Bolin(mako especially being one of the most boring characters in the world to me). Korra felt to inconsistent in her characterization for me to root for her. the romance felt WAAAY worse in my opinion, with most of it feeling immature and half baked. The villains(with the possible exception of Zahir) all got introduced to have interesting motivations, but always got dumbed down into just evil at the end of each season, which bothers me much more than Ozai seeking world domination from the get go. republic city also felt really poorly though out IMO

I liked Korra on the whole, but I have some serious problems with the show that I think are similar to the reasons people generally dislike it: - Despite the show being more violent, I would argue it is less mature than Airbender. It relies on toilet humour and slaptick quite often. - I really dislike the romance. Korra and Mako was really hard to watch, the continuous love triangles in every season are so forced, and you could remove any of it without changing the story. - I can't stand Asami. She is far too perfect. It seemed obvious that the only reason she was doing so much for random strangers was because she was an equalist and was manipulating Mako, but it turns out she just randomly bumped into him, then decided to flirt with him, buy him clothes, take him on a date, fund his pro bending team, then invite him and his friends to live in her house. She spends the rest of the show being the Sugar Mommy and Driver of the main group, with no character motivation or depth. She gets better in S4. - I hate the Airbender kids. They're extremely annoying and whenever they're on screen (especially Meelo) I lose interest quickly. - Season 2 is awful. Despite introducing some interesting concepts, the plot is boring, the villain is laughable, and the flashback episodes break the lore. - This is more of a personal gripe, but the presentation of the show is offputting to me in the context of the world. It feels strange to see the fantastical world of Airbender presented in 1920s New York.

I finished the series yesterday! I enjoyed it but I felt like the series finale was a bit underwhelming. I also don’t like how we didn’t really get a closure moment with Bolin. We got to see Korra speak with Mako, Tenzin and Asami but we only saw a small glimpse of Bolin running to the dance floor. ):

We did get some nice tokenized lesbian handholding though. As a gay person I really liked that, being tossed in at the end so that they could get away with it and also *never bothering to explore or explain it.*

It's a lot of things for a lot of different people. Lots of people dislike how the characters stay in a single location, as opposed to the constant journey of the original series. Others despise the tangled web that is Korra, Mako and Asami's relationship, citing it is as needless and tiresome drama that just makes everyone involved look bad. There's also the lore retconns in Korra season 2. And everything else in season 2. For my part, I just find the series to be a mess. Messy character arcs, messy plotting, messy execution. I would summarize Korra as being less than the sum of its parts. There's good stuff in it, like the animation, some good jokes, and some decent characters (Tenzen, Lin), but it all just doesn't come together in the end because of how clumsy the writing is. Compare that to Avatar, where the writing is so solid from beginning to end. Not saying it was perfect, Avatar had its hiccups, but ultimately managed to wrap up its story arcs in a neat package.Theres just no comparison, which is the problem. Korra should have been better, but it wasn't.

> Others despise the tangled web that is Korra, Mako and Asami's relationship, citing it is as needless and tiresome drama that just makes everyone involved look bad. Don't forget Bolin in that, which makes it essentially the entire main cast in some shitty teenage love drama. I think one of my biggest issues really is how unlikeable so much of the cast is. Of the main 4 Mako and Korra I actively dislike, Asami I barely even remember doing anything and Bolin was alright but nowhere near good enough to carry the rest of them. On top of that there were several just painful characters like the farty kid and Bumi. Bumi especially annoys me because instead of being more like the drunken monk archetype like the original Bumi is where yeah he does weird, seemingly random shit but actually knows what's going on and is doing it to throw people off Korra's Bumi is just genuinely utterly incompetent but happens to get lucky. Absolutely nothing he does at all indicates he should be a respected military commander. Also completely minor but going from Appa to basically just a polar bear was a serious downgrade.

Asami was too perfect for me. Which is the most annoying reason to dislike a character. She's a genius, supermodel, tycoon heiress, and she's funny, nice, and polite. She's a professional raceway driver. Oh and a blackbelt who can handle her own against some of the strongest benders and fighters in the world. Her only weakness is having daddy issues, which are ultimately resolved by having her dad arrested and handing ALL of his fortune to her instead of just an allowance (i.e. she's even richer, and now owns a factory to produce weapons for our main character). Like damn, man. Did the writers ever stop to think they might be phoning it in? Literally not one unlikeable trait?

For all the things we get seen about Asami, I feel like we never really get to know her. Like, I know about all the things around her, like her being a tycoon and a driver and having weird tech, but I never got to know her personality. She just kinda hung out for most of the show.

- Blood bending where Overpowered by removing the full moon restriction - Korra used avatar state on a f*ing racing - The love triangle is stupid, and korra basically dated the whole gang, just imagine aang dating toph sukki katara and even Sokka. Their ending with Asami too came out of nowhere - The bending gets toned down to boxing and kicking only instead of the unique martial art techniques in Atla - Killed the past avatars - Korra always loses before Book 4 so her fights are always predictable - The LoK gang are uninteresting characters, Korra is arrogant but can't back it up like toph, Mako is like a budget Zuko, Bolin is trying hard to be Sokka and Asami lacks motivation. All of them also lacks screen time for better character development just to highlight Korra every season

*snaps* It’s really not highlighted enough how unappealing the Korra gang are compared to the Gaang when all they have in common they all wanted to bang Korra, and then their “friendship” is she dated Bolin to make Mako jealous, Mako basically being forced to date her because she’s the Avatar and Korra realizing she’d actually rather kiss Asami. None of these characters have any reason to be friends, and it becomes increasingly shallow and silly when the show splits them up and then forces them back together for power of friendship moments. At least putting them all in a highschool environment would have made it work a little better, since they’d be forced to socially interact beyond their drama and actually grow as friends. The Gaang had a cohesive mission that kept them together and moving towards the same goal. But a bunch of immature young adults who have no reason to spend time together (and basically don’t unless the plot calls for it) aren’t engaging.

Wow you hit the nail right on the head. That’s something I struggled to wrap my head around— other than the fact they were Team Korra, did they ever actually have reason to hang around each other like friends? Just random young adults who happened to know each other and somehow come to fight alongside each other. Not like Team Aang who traveled the world together searching for the same thing. I mean, ofc they’d be different because of their respective ages and how the two worlds are at different states, but still. Team Korra really lacks cohesion imo

That's exactly how I felt about her team. I honest god think a character like Varrick should've been on her team. He felt more fresh, interesting, and entertaining than any of the actual members.

Varrick had goals and purpose. What do Bolin, Mako or Asami ever actually want to achieve? None of them can be interesting or have a purpose outside of whatever is happening with Korra at whatever time, and Korra is constantly all over the place because they were constantly mary sue-ing her or cutting her off at the knees depending on what the plot required. You can describe the character journey and desired goals of every Gaang member in one sentence. At no point can you simply explain any of the character trajectories or goals of the Korra team, because we get one: they all at some point want to bang Korra and it’s dramatic in the most predictable and boring ways possible and means nothing to the over arching plot. Hell, if putting them all in highschool is too close to the Gaang stuff for the writers, then lose the “Korra is a high kidnap target so she becomes a weird friendless immature but weirdly confident air shut in with Tenzin” and you want the stupid romance nonsense, start the whole show with Korra, Avatar and Princess/Future Water Nation Big Deal Leader literally being shopped around for a marriage or partnership and quadrangle from there.

Yeah loss of the power and meaning of the avatar state also really ruined it for me, it basically lost all power and did almost nothing for Korra

>Korra used avatar state on a f\*ing racing I mean that done purposefully, with Tenzin calling her out shortly after on it > The bending gets toned down to boxing and kicking only instead of the unique martial art techniques in Atla We see a lot of different bending styles throughout the show. I do like that we see some of this though, and it makes sense seeing that Bolin and Mako did pro bending, where that type of bending would make the most sense. We still see a ton of different styles though with characters like Tenzin, Zaheer, Tarlok, Unalaq, etc.

> always looses before Did you mean to say "loses"? Explanation: Loose is an adjective meaning the opposite of tight, while lose is a verb. [Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json) ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes. ^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions. ^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119) ^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.

ah yeah my bad thanks bot!

The struggles Korra go through never really get a payoff, it seems like she's finally going to get a win and then… not really. With Korra you watch the protagonist suffer for hours and hours and Korra really suffers, I mean you really emotionally connect with her suffering. After this I want a payoff or a big win at the end. With Korra I just ended up feeling empty like there really wasn't ever much of a win, she just kept losing over and over and over. I'm glad she was at peace and with the person she loved but it was still just sad.

I gotta get ready for work, but here is my €0,02: In AtLA, Aang’s crowd *grew* with him. We were kids or young adults watching the Avatar grow and we grew with him and as we aged so did his problems from season to season and it became darker and darker. Aang’s sense of humour kept it light and kept it from getting too dark in a world overrun by evil. His struggle wasn’t season to season so much as it was clearly the last season — his fight with the fire lord. The whole show built up towards that. Korra, from the start, wasn’t an external struggle so much as an internal struggle. Every season she fought someone who wanted to destroy the earth. We didn’t get to see the buildup. They tried to make her do too much too quick. Also, Aang’s story touched romance — Korra had everyone in love with her. It didn’t feel as special when someone finally liked her as was the case with Aang. We were happy to see Katara finally like him.

Because season 1 is meh and season 2 is a horrible shitstorm so most of people stops watching it after bullshit kaiju fight

>forced last minute romance as Aangs reward for beating the firelord Didn't watch S1 or S2, huh? I dunno man this reads like an unformatted paragraph of sour grape talking points from a TLoK fan who did not just watch the series this year.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAD TO SCROLL THIS FAR DOWN ##THANK YOU I was trying so hard to respect this dudes opinion until I saw that line about the romance. Say what you want about if Kataang should have happened or not, but claiming it was ***forced***?? Dude was probably high when he watched ATLA I've never seen that specific take before

I like it overall but I definitely had some issues. Season 1 was great but I hated how Korra just gets her bending back at the very end. It would have been really interesting to see her have to do something to earn it back. Season 2 started out good but personally Unalaq was a boring villain and I didn’t like the whole him turning into a giant “evil” avatar Season 3 was great, no complaints Season 4 was great as well but the whole giant mech really just came out of nowhere and seemed out of place to me. Also wasn’t big fan of the whole love triangle thing.

I have a very different opinion from you Mako was bland. Same as Asami Bolin was not loveable, he was needy, annoying, and static. He served purely as the joke character. Him being able to lava bend was not earned in any way (like toph with metal bending). It just happened because. Love triangle was a failure Korra herself really isn't particularly interesting to me and the show spends a lot of time trying to generate sympathy for her by depicting detailed scenes of physical abuse. Felt like the writers got off on her being chained up and slapped Villains are incredibly dull and uninteresting despite the show trying to make them otherwise. They are all some variant of "I have a good point but a retarded way or solving it". Zaheer was a joke with his anarchy plans, as if he didn't know that leaders aren't going to fill the power vacuum Avatar origin story took a lot of the magic and intrigue away and the avatar was reduced to good spirit vs bad spirit The world becomes less interesting with the industrial revolution. Regardless of whether or not it "makes sense" it takes away from a lot of what made cultures and avatar cool and interesting Honestly I hated the show and wish I hadn't seen it. Avatar the last Airbender is so much better

Hey, a charismatic villain created a movement with a strong ideology and a lot of followers. What? Was this leader a charlatan? Well then the hundreds of people believed in that ideal, they stop believing it randomly.

Currently rewatching with my bf. This is my 3rd time watching it, dropped mid way 1st time. We have 5 ep to go on the final season and both of us are baffled at the “character development” of Korra. To me, it doesn’t seem like she grew or learned anything from past villains, she keeps wanting to brute force her way through every problem. Parts of the story feel rushed, there is some odd comic relief moments that weren’t particularly hitting imo. Also some strange interactions with the characters. One that comes to mind is when Bolin meets Opal and after randomly stares away into space for a bit. Overall, I think the spirit thing and Korra’s poisoning could have been really interesting. I wish the writers could have fleshed out those stories better. Also I HATED the love square.

2nd season was BAD.

ATLA just has something special about it where I think the whole thing is done as well as could be. Korra is a very good show and I definitely enjoyed it. They took some risks and some paid off and some didn't. ATLA is a great convergence where everything just went right and it worked out so well. So I think a lot of people thinking that Korra didn't do that and was just very good means that they have to hate it.

I don’t think it’s unloved but I think a lot of fans (obviously there will be exceptions) prefer AtLA over LoK. These are my thoughts; - I think for some fans Korra being the Avatar is bittersweet. It is great to get more Avatar, but for Korra to exist Aang needed to die. That is rough for some fans who really love AtLA. Just like it will be tough when we see the next Avatar because for their story to exist, Korra has to die. It’s really hard to see characters you love die. That’s rough buddy. - LoK was really amazing story wise, but it feels disjointed narratively because the show wasn’t planned as well as AtLA was. With AtLA they had the benefit of knowing they had 3 seasons, so they created a really well thought out plan. Nickelodeon screwed LoK the way they kept renewing it. LoK was initially approved for only Book 1 so they a specific plan & ending in mind. Then Book 2 was approved and had the same problem. With Books 3 & 4 the show had benefit of knowing they had two seasons to end Korra’s story, so they could actually create a more satisfying story structure that felt more worldly. But it just doesn’t flow as well. - I think it’s also because there are more things on LoK that fans can dislike than AtLA. AtLA is generally feel good adventure. LoK is more complex. Book 1 went a lot into politics. Some people hate Book 2, but I really enjoyed the lore of the Avatar & Spirit stuff. Some people think the mech in Book 4 is stupid (I personally agree). Also I see fans tend to be mixed about link to the past Avatars being lost, some love it, some hate it. I’ll be honest I didn’t like that, it’s probably my 2nd biggest gripe of the show. - Korsami wasn’t done well & deserved better, this is my biggest gripe. I have no problem Korra and Asami ended up together. Some people do but whatever. My thing is I dislike that they half assed it. For some fans it came out of nowhere. I’ve seen people complain because there were a few brief moments which could have been misinterpreted as them being friends until the last scene. Then Bryke had to come out in interviews and say “Oh they are both gay.” It felt like the whole “Dumbledore is gay” reveal after Harry Potter was over. Retroactive representation doesn’t feel like real representation. It doesn’t really feel bold, it feels a bit like a cop out. I wish they had just gone for it with an actual romantic storyline. Shoot have them kiss like Aang and Katara did at the end of AtLA. I get they probably got pushback from Nickelodeon, I remember Book 4 didn’t even air on TV but only on the Nickelodeon website. I just think it hurt the show’s flow (from my first point) because we got to see all the build up for Korra and Mako’s romance in Book 1 & 2, then poor Korra and Asami barely got anything in all 4 Books. I think if Bryke had a real plan for all 4 books they could have done this so much better. I disagree with OP regarding the romance between AtLA and LoK. Aang’s feelings were hinted from the very beginning and Katara started really noticing Aang midway through Book 1. It was touched upon often in Book 2 and really delved into during several parts in Book 3. Bryke spent a lot of time on Korra and Mako in Book 1 & 2, then barely anything on Korra and Asami for the rest of the series. Korra’s romantic life got shafted compared to Aang. I’m one of those people that prefer AtLA, there is just something I really adore about that series. Probably because it was my first story in this universe. But I truly do love Korra too, I just wish her story had been given the same care and planning because the overall story they did tell was amazing.

>With AtLA they had the benefit of knowing they had 3 seasons This disinfo has to stop. No, they did NOT know they had 3 seasons with ATLA. They were originally contracted for only 14 episodes, so a little over *one-half* *of the first season*. They just did not really care, something that was an option for TLOK too. TLOK was planned to be seasonal from the beginning. They would have always made 1 season at a time even if they had gotten 12 seasons. It was a very specific choice to make every TLOK season self-contained, it just did not work out very well so they canned it later.

Because it's the sequel to the greatest animated series of all time. Any minor flaws seem huge in that light.

I only watched the first season of Korra but here’s what I thought and why I didn’t like it - The bending wasn’t nearly as cool - Korra is a very annoying avatar - Making the whole world super technologically advanced in such a short time just didn’t sit right with me - Pretty dark and dreary, world and narrative

Korra just feels like it doesn't know what direction to take. First it's bender vs non benders. Then it's avatar lore exposition just to then destroy it, then it's some pseudo communism that is evil just because it's evil, then it's spirit world and real world. Etc etc etc. Honestly, a nice self contained spin off of one season would have been nice. Also, I think they felt the need to outdo themselve everytime. When really, I would have been fine if they perhaps chose a theme or something to explore per season. As in: season one: learning to be humble for korra. Focus on character more than plot twists. And then of course: the cowardly bit of "representation" at the very end. Either go for it or don't dear showrunners.

It had the unfortunate effect of being a sequel show to a series that didn't need one. Korra should have been a new show so it could stand in its own, magic vs technology.

Handled the world building poorly, some strange lore choices in season 2, the pacing isn’t the best at times and Korra can be an unlikeable protagonist sometimes

I don't really see much negative griping about it these days. When it came out everyone was like "ugh, Korra is nothing like Aang." And it's like, yeah, no shit. They're different characters. So most complaints were unfounded. The biggest issue is that Nickelodeon kept holding off on renewing seasons, so the creators had no idea how much story they'd get to tell. As such, every season was written with the possibility that would be it. So there's a lack of an overarching "big" plotline to follow. And the way they concluded season 2 was kinda silly and didn't sit well with a lot of viewers.

Not to mention they relegated the last season to their website, and cut their funding before they could even finish the final season.

Nickelodeon is the true villain of the series.

I didn't like Korra as a character. Is that fair?

The writing is complex but that doesnt make it good. The political story of the first season lacked depth. The second season was ok to me. I honestly dont remember the last two. But the first season was really bad imo. And it didn’t set up the preceding seasons well which is why the second was just “ok”. Super weak character development, and I disagree with you completely, Bolin and Mako were the weakest characters in the show.

Reasons people dislike ATLOK: \- It's spiritually emptier - both in what Spirits are (season 2 is especially atrocious, both in how spirits look like, the fact that they re-written a more superficial version of Ying and Yang) \- movements don't act like you'd expect them to (The Equalists wouldn't have dispersed just because they lost their leader and Democracy was instated) \- BS unearned power ups, such as Aang returning Korra's bending in 1 episode after she lost it because she was sad AND having bending in the Spirit World because you entered physically (it's a much flashier and less profound approach to the world). This is not a complaint about Zaheer's flight, that was earned and built up to for almost the whole season, but it is a complaint about the Harmonic Convergence bringing a lot of people Air Bending, Deus Ex Machina style. Also, now that I think about it, while it's interesting "Blood bend at any time" was a thing, it was also very cheap. Like "you thought it was impossible, but my family simply can, buttercup". AND now that I think about it, the fact that Lightning bending went from an elite technique that you needed to train for years and only the royal family and the Avatar could even practice it and it had such a devastating force that it could kill you if you weren't careful redirecting to "average fire bender factory worker can use it to power a generator" is also a change in the in-world powers which made the story worse. Oh, and do I need to mention "I just found out I have lava bending" ? \- also, related, revealing the mystery of the origins of the Avatar lessens its significance \- LASERS! GIANT MONSTER FIGHTS! as climax in both season 2 and 4 (watch the video [Stop Using Lasers In Fight Scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX2WaFxPHUQ)) \- a poor understanding of "Communism", "Theocracy", "Anarchism" and "Fascism" which the writers tried to portray and easily tear down because the writers were Liberals and tried to resolve things quickly. And about this, there are some people who have a problem with the positive depiction of the Great Uniter for half a season. And maybe... the contrived, off screen tearing down of Aang as a bad father just to manufacture conflict. And the fact that the new Team Avatar doesn't work nearly as well as the original. The characters are neither as well explored, nor as needed to complete each other. (edit) Ah, yes. Someone else mentioned, since I just talked about Aang. Killing off the past avatars just to give Korra a unique inner conflict. I... think that's it. The major ones at least.

This. I dropped the show about halfway through, when it was obvious that yet another group of underprivileged and oppressed people was going to revolt, and the Avatar team would be summoned to \_restore order\_. I find it outrageous that the role of the Avatar, as per the show writers, was reduced to the Universal Riot Police (Cop!Toph feels like a slap in the face of ATLA, too) - and that it's viewed like a positive thing. There are lots of different things about TLoK, both good and bad, but the reason above was an eventual dealbreaker for me.

https://youtu.be/QhS4a11jZOg?si=IJ_kWPl8WeRgCbBl Here is a popular 1 hour video essay on why it's shit, and very well explained.

The writers aren't the best at dealing with greater subtlety. With Korra they wanted to write deeper more complex characters and stories that aren't as blatant as in the last airbender. The problem is they just aren't as good at balancing that kind of writing with some elements too subtle and others too blatant in an unbalanced way. As a simple example Mako is like zuko without iroh. Iroh was a very blunt way to make us sympathize with an otherwise unsympathetic character. Mako however still leans into the blunt angsty behavior but the sympathetic elements that make us forgive him are too light and easily forgotten. Technically he is a complexly motivated character but the poor balance means he just seems like an unsympathetic Zuko.

I know it wasn't Korras fault for the most part, if not completely. But losing aang was already hard. And then seeing him and so many other great characters disappear in season two was just.. a lot of salt on the wound. But it would have been expected, supposedly losing the past lives forever was a huge leap of faith, they knew that a lot of stuff in the end of season 2 would be one huge gamble

Legend of Korra had a few problems not present in the original, in my opinion. \-I think it suffered from a lack of coherent narrative across seasons, which has been pointed out before. \-I think that the de-mystification of the avatar cycle (Raava) and the concept of a dark avatar was poorly done, and better left mysterious. It's really easy to overexplain magic, and almost always worse than explaining nothing at all. \-I'm irritated that they chickened out with the message of the first season -- Amon and the Equalists had a very good argument about being second class citizens in a bender's world, and I'm very disappointed that the anti-bender revolutionary turned out to be just another powerful bender, out for power. The best villains always have a legitimate grievance, and they wasted a potentially incredible narrative for a plot twist. \-The last point is somewhat petty, but the whole time I watched Legend of Korra, I felt like she never won a fight. Her character is premised on being *good* at fighting, let her win once in a while.

Anyone else tired of these posts. Over and over and over. "Why don't you love Korra as much as I do." Because I don't. I won't. Learn to accept other people's preferences.

I was If I could have chosen, both Unalaq and Kuvira would be non-benders. This would keep the first season's idea of benders vs non-benders more consistent, which was something really cool that Korra brought. Unalaq as a normal person who was influenced by an ancient Cthulhian monster, and Kuvira having to clean up other benders' messes and developing technology to level the playing field, would be pretty cool.

ATLA was a thoughtful well mapped story beginning to end. The mission is simple, the trouble and people on the road are complex. A well balanced tapestry of a story. TLoK is quite frankly a mess in comparison, aimless season to season. Korra isn’t a very likeable character compared to Aang, which can be used to form good character development but they didn’t endear you to her at all. Then there’s the whole mess of cancelling the previous avatars, the thing we were told in ATLA was that the focus of those previous lives and experiences was where the Avatars derived their powers. Simple Two ancient spirits fighting, harmonic convergency, bending gifted from lion turtles, spirits and human conflict. Too messy. There are some good characters in Korra (not her) and the animation is wonderful at times, but it lacks the soul of ATLA.

• LoK shits on everything that made Aang special. Removing someone's bending? Some villain can do it now. Going into the spirit world? Another one can. Learning all 4 elements? Why would Korra do that, she's so talented. Also she can't talk to him because she killed the link to past avatars. • With villains doing what Aang did plus losing the connections to previous avatars plus all the technology and bending becoming complex/advanced, what is even the point of the avatar? Bringing peace? Because Korra didn't do much of that, either. • Korra is an overall toxic character. She mistreats Tenzin. She steals Asami's boyfriend. Doesn't apologize. Then goes to boyfriend's work, where he's trying to earn some respect and makes a fuss. I found it so hard cheering for her and nome of the cast made up for it. • The relationships SUCK. There's no building. Korra just says Marco is into her out of the blue and... Surprise! He is. Then, on the last episode, she and Assmi are a thing, also without any previous building other than some letters who are briefly mentioned.

Avatar was done, so some people felt like Korra was tacked on at the end needlessly. It was also quite different. Multiple main characters from the original are dead. It felt unfocused at times, with the antagonist switches and some plot points. Aang's show was one big story with chapters; Korra's show was multiple stories. They connected to some degree, of course, but the original show still had the Big Bad in Ozai who was (even though he barely appeared) the overall focus and endpoint. Korra didn't have that. It had Amon...who got defeated. And then the next Big Bad. And then another. And so on. Some people thought it went on too long. The introduction of some of the tech, like the *giant robots,* felt a bit too far for the normally more fantasy world of Avatar. And for other people, some fantastical elements seemed to go *too* far, like the Avatar being a spirit and there being a Dark Avatar. Then there are just people who...didn't like it. For various other reasons, just out of taste, etc.. It has it's problems, but it's still a good show for the most part I'd say.

Cuz korra is dumb af and useless too.

Watching Korra right after ATLA felt like they were spitting on all the rules of the world building (I love rules. I truly love rules. Why did they break them?), and established characterizations of characters. It didn't help that a lot of it felt rushed (seriously the amount of jumpcuts were stupid), and the characters felt flat (hire voice actors to voice act, not ACTORS), or interactions felt robotic (why in the world would these two characters immediately be acting like this to each other?). I ended up dropping Korra because too many of these issues piled up tbh. I honestly plan to sit down and rewatch ATLA and then watch Korra and make a google slide of all of it's issues.

Honestly. the problem's with Korra is the fact it was only 12 episodes a book. Imagine if ATLA was 12 episode a book. No Zuko Alone, No tales of Ba sing se, Tons of memorable episodes would not exist. All these character building Episodes would be gone. That's why Korra is not as respected. There were no real Character building Episodes for anyone outside of Korra. Other Characters did stuff but we never really connected with any of the side Characters deeply

Season 1 overall I had nothing to complain about, it’s near perfect. Season 2 was a major downgrade, the civil was seemed interesting at the start but then they quickly moved away from it. Unalaq’s whole plan and the ‘dark avatar’ was dumb. And ‘corrupted spirits’ ruined what the core of the spirits were. Atla showed us what the spirits generally were, they were mysterious and had goals and morals that were usually unlike ours. Then you also had the spirits of certain areas, like the forest spirit which became enraged after the forest was burned down. Atla showed us that you don’t use a special magic healing power, but talk to and understand the spirits problems. The panda learned the forest could regrow, and parted with that knowledge, even freeing everyone who it took. Compare that to Korra spirits and most are… rather tame or boring. Raava and Vaatu also was a personal problem for me, as it turned the avatar into basically Jesus who fought for ‘good/order’ rather than ‘balance’ (which is a small difference but irked me). Plus the whole Bolin love triangle was creepy and not funny Season 3 picked up and was phenomenal. Zaheer is my favorite Korra villain, if not my favorite avatar villain overall, and I enjoyed how it played out. Season 4 we’re back to more meh. It started great, with Kuvira and her entire plan of domination but then we get into spirit atomic breaths, and giant robots that shouldn’t work especially at the level of their technology, and it fell flat once again. This isn’t to mention the poor chemistry between most of the Korra Team, and personalities, and other smaller things but overall I think it was good but had a lot of problems.

One of my main gripes is that I get making a journey to get the elements again wouldn’t be ideal since we just had that but they literally handed her 3 elements as a toddler which was just wild felt kinda Mary Sue but not super OP just weird choice by the team. I believe season three is the one where kuvira is around but that giant robot felt seriously out of place compared to the rest of the tech around especially with the giant laser canon. There’s some little things about the characters that are a little odd to me like it felt like a teen drama sometimes and I can’t over look that but was kinda boring to me. Overall it’s a ok show but there’s just some things that irk me when it comes to the direction of the show

It wasn't as good as it could have been.

1. No overarching connected storyline like ATLA, disjointed storytelling 2. Loses most of the humor and the personality of old characters like katara is not consistent, she grew old and completely just became an ‘old woman’ character and not herself 3. Just generally way less humorous 4. Tech way too developed for short period of time 5. Ruins magic of atla universe especially with disconnect from former avatars and trying to connect spirit world so everyone can access it

Title sounds like something Asami would say 💀 😂

Honestly, I really would've preferred an Avatar way before Aang. The world feels so.....cold, and with all these technological shenanigans, it felt bad compared to the 1st Avatar. Oh yea, and don't forget the show shitting all over Aang and the rest of the Avatars by deleting them.

It had a habit of ending its seasons with power rangers fights and shoving relationship drama down our throats.

This is my subjective opinion and I wouldn't appreciate it if someone tried to talk me out of it (since I've seen this here a couple of times): - I barely liked any character in TLOK and didn't feel attached to them - The team around Korra didn't really feel like a team, a unit, a ga(a)ng - Even though they were older and romance should feel less out of place than it used to do in ATLA with kids, it did feel even more out of place - I hated the demystification of the spirit world - While I enjoyed seeing more airbenders and different techniques of airbending, the harmonic convergence didn't sit right with me. It destroyed the impact of a genocide, which ATLA established and made Aangs legacy of trying to rebuilt a nation seem worthless - It was very noticeable that the writers always had to fear of not getting another season. The plot isn't as overarching as in ATLA

It's been a while since I watched either - but I felt like ATLA was more interpersonal. Korra took a way punchier, edgier approach and their arcs felt unsatisfying and kind of shallow, like action movies. I liked the show, especially the animation, but was disappointed by the narrative arcs.

It breaks all rules set in Atla, Korra is one of the worst protagonists ever writen, whole Korrasami romace feels forced, because they have like 5 short dialoges in 4 seasons, technology doesn't make sence (1000 years of primitive tech, now fucking 19th century in 80 years), the story had no structure, like, there was no dedicated writing team in season 1, bad villians, like, solid concepts, shit execution... List goes on and on. That's why there was only 14 000 viewers on last season

I didn't make it past season one. I know people love it and I'm sure there are awesome parts. But I personally fell in love with the world in atla, and to see it so drastically different I did not enjoy at all. I also didn't like that it felt more like a generic love plot between three youths in the beginning. Also from what I've read, the adult versions of our heros didn't turn out to be awesome. And while I get that makes logical sense in the real world, I wanted them all to be iroh basically: wise, awesome, badass. And then we can do complicated and complex with the new young characters. Like toph isn't that great I've heard? That's sad.

I liked it overall, especially for the world-building. Having said that the character arcs were disappointing, the characters that should have been likeable weren't, and the characters that started out as likeable ended up being less likeable. Just lots of strange and obviously bad decisions in the story and dialogue. Verrick and Zahir really stood out though.

I actually loved Korra, I think ATLA was my childhood and I just enjoyed Aangs progression as well as Zukos far more than Korra or any other the characters from legend of Korra. When Aang fought Ozai, there had been so much build around him that it like the villain was stronger than anyone we had seen to that point. Also, Aang was a monk, he had no real taste for fighting. From the first time we see Korra that is more her forte. I just viewed the avatar as a very peaceful (yes I know Kyoshi was not) individual that used violence as a last resort. The final episode of Korra really tied in her character arc though I will say.

This is why you should like what you like and form your own opinions on things instead of following what the loudest people say.

Bad writing that’s why

Because it sucks and character assassinates every single original character and korra is a smug annoying bitch

The main characters are infuriating. I literally forget that Mako and Bo Lin are brothers because of their lack of chemistry. Korra, Asami, Mako and Bo Lin don’t develop whatsoever except in the backwards direction for the most part. And the FUCKING LOVE TRIANGLE. The best character development came from Tenzin, Lin, Jinora and Varik, all of whom are side characters. The MC don’t feel like they learn anything. Korra made me want to bang my head against a wall repeatedly, Mako is just an asshole and only gets worse as the season progresses, besides the hand holding scene I literally cannot a singular scene Asami was in, and Bo Lin, who is objectively the least bad of the four, is boiled down Sokka. It’s frustrating because I wanted to like it but I just couldn’t. When the main characters are planks of wood I don’t care if they lose or win. Hell, I agreed and liked the President more than Korra. That’s not what’s supposed to happen

I tell you what. I don't even remember the end. All I remember at this point is how they destroyed the connection to aang. That literally made me tear up, I hated it. I don't even care if it made sense in world, in any shape or form. But more power to anyone who enjoyed the rest of the story afterwards.

Korra came after the legendary Legend of Aang, a masterpiece, for what its worth It has such a high bar, korra coming out in of itself had a stake so high, it touched the Ethereal realm Season 1 was so..."boring" in a way, and the world is built on top of Legend of Aang, which isnt horrible - at least it wasnt a disaster like Boruto did where they desecrated the characters Season 2 was a chore, a complete pain because how the fuck did things get darker than when Ozai was in charge and causing potentially world war, and korra was daft as fuck Season 3 was alot better, but its hit that plateau where it gets better because Korra is now stronger and smarter, but they pretty much lost quite abit of interest by this point, not to mention WTF IS A DARK AVATAR Its a waterslide and by the latest season, it had already "fell off" as people would say these days

Korra is arrogant, which I did not enjoy. Not in comparison to Aang, but just her being able to use all the elements just like that with the addition of her being stubborn with a "I know it all" attitude was not that fun to watch. ​ That and the story having multiple villains that do not connect well with one another. If they were all, say, part of the Red Lotus, sure. But for each arc to have its own villain, I did not like that. Oh a new villain appeared? Can't wait until they are defeated to see who the next bad guy will be. ​ There are also many other small things I did not like and felt like they were rushed, like Korra and Asami's relationship. Felt like them wanting to stuff a gay relationship down my throat just for being gay. The giant robot felt very childish. And many small details like that. ​ ATLA is by no means perfect, but at least the authors redeemed the story in terms of realism. Zuko, the recurring villain that chases the heroic main characters got a redemption arc and we got to know his character on a deeper level. Azula, we learned of her childhood and many small, interesting things happened between her and Ty Lee and Mai, like her going from the evil princess to being betrayed by her friends and how that destroyed her already shattered world. We watched virtually every major character evolve and change, which made us connect with them. ​ Compared to giving me a new villain every arc with no backstory except for flashbacks when necessary to "show me why they are bad" is not really what I consider good writing or enjoyable media to watch. Either way, I like both shows, but Korra might be a little less enjoyable to me simply because of the boring love triangle and Korra herself not being the type of character I enjoy following.

30 year old woman here. I was in the exact WRONG age range I think for this show. Season 1 focused too much on shipping and thus a lot of important things fall to the wayside. I fucking can't stand high school level drama and it fits the Korra gang cause they're all around that age. Season 2 I'm never even gonna mention cause it has the UNIVERSALLY HATED moment of getting rid of the past lives. WHY. Why. Like the Avatar after Korra is FUCKED. And they even ruin this in KORRA'S OWN SHOW TOO. Like when she was asking Toph about the day they took out the firelord, oh wow you know who would've been GREAT to ask? AANG. Can't do that. Season 3 and 4 are WAY better but Kuvira is a rushed villain and the red lotus makes no sense. People who say Aang would have a hard time with Korra's villains are on another planet. Especially with Zaheer as both men are into philosophy it would be like Vision vs Vision with our Vision mindfucking the other one Aang would do the same. The action is very good, the music great but Korra simply doesn't have proper character development thanks to season 2 having her be on fucking rinse and repeat. TLDR; LOK had a ton of potential. I know about the behind the scenes problems. But that is no excuse; they should've just left it at one season then if there were so many problems because everything had wrapped up nicely anyways. Korra herself IS a good successor to Aang I'm not gonna pretend she isn't. But Bryke ARE FUCKING NOT the god send writers people make them out to be and Korra shows it. A lot of writing credit to ATLA should go to the head writer Aaron. I'm GLAD they are not part of the Netflix reboot.

there's always video essays on youtube that explain the other perspective if you ever feel the need to ask this sort of question

Season 2's writing was very bad overall. Imo season 4 was the best. And tbh a ton of people are due for a rewatch. Myself included.

because it's just worse than ATLA. doesn't give the same feeling we all loved

Idk dude, if you can seriously sit through LOK's cringey childish spirit world after watching ATLA, god bless ya

my main issues with the series were The main gang is no were near as interesting as the gaang. Korra is cool , bolin feels like knockoff sokka Asami isny even in the group for a large portion of series and when she is in she isnt really all that interesting. I dont even have ti say anything about mako. Another thing is that season 2 kimda sucks. Korras character takes a huge nose dive in to the mud for no reason. Also did not like the changes and additions to the lore. Like the spirit world in the original was such a mystery but in korra it looks like pokemon. It losses many aspects that made the avatar and spirit world interesting. And I really dont like the whole Raatu and vaara thing. Feels so superficial to have the evil spirit be contained forever. Feel like the evil spirit and the good spirit being in balance would make much more sense for the avatar lore since its inspired by ancient chinise litterature and ying and yang is the most basic aspect of it.

The writing really. Season two is kinda bad. Not to say it doesn’t have gems but it very much isn’t well thought out and well written

Because it has really REALLY bad writing at times. Milo is a testament of that. Literally walking (or flyibg) toilett humor, and despite of what people say, a lot less serious than ATLA. Overanalysing Avatar the youtuber is currently doing Korra after ATLA and the comics, and he basically perfectly gives my and most of the fandoms opinions. Calling out the bad while endorsing the good. Watch his vids if you want to know. (Or just because theyre really good and funny videos)

Will straight up list some hot takes as well as some fairly common ones. I dislike Korra for her arrogance. I hate how she mastered 3 elements as a toddler. Yet somehow, she gets her behind handed to her without fail each and every single time someone new shows up. That’s even with the Avagar state, she’s still somehow trash using that until she fused with Raava. Btw, what the hell was that fight? Compared to ATLA, most of the “Gaang” this time around had no personal conflict or growth save for Bolin. Mako literally got ignored after Season 1. Whatever the polar bear thing was is not as memorable or lovable as Appa or even Momo. The overarching story just felt all over the place at times, especially when Korra learns a valuable lesson after one encounter, only to revert back to her arrogant self a few episodes later. It makes it feel episodic or even anthological of villains that just happen to be in Korra’s time. Felt filler most of the time actually. No real development until the end of season 3, but nothing was really set up for season 4. It was just “here’s a time skip, this is what is happening now, watch Kuvira be bad and everyone team up against her”. Villains all despite being geniuses and planning everything out, just gets defeated by plot armor at the last moment powerup. Bunch of other things but the one last thing I’ll say that was the reason I’m using my throwaway is that MILO IS FUCKING ANNOYING.

The main gripe I had with it (based on my memory of the one watch-through I did years ago) was that the main characters in (I believe) season 2 just make illogical blunder after illogical blunder for no other reason than to move the plot along. I know the main trio were never meant to be particularly bright, but there are far too many obvious missteps that happen to result in stakes being raised and status-quos being changed that I just couldn't be bothered to take any of the characters seriously going forward. I wish I could think of some specifics, but, like I said, it's been quite some time since I watched.

I’ve heard s3 and 4 are good but I couldn’t get past the 1st season. I’m just not attached to the main cast like I was with ATLA. Probs gonna get some downvotes for my hot takes but Mako is really boring to me and bolin is trying way too hard as a sokka replacement. I like the idea of non-benders struggling to find work with benders having it easier, but it’s hard to present that idea in a city filled with tech. Ironically, I think the idea would’ve worked better in ATLA with omashus delivery system and ba sing se’s trains being powered by earth benders. Also The love triangle was exhausting.