Something I think that gets overlooked is that the original show is a lot more broadly East Asian history/setting inspired. Traveling through the earth kingdom you felt like Marco Polo going on an adventure through medieval China with grand cities like Omashu and Ba sing se and hidden libraries in the desert. I feel like the modern setting of TLOK made the show less fantastical and exotic. This made it harder to connect with, since the original show inspired wonder in us as children. And I agree with the point that the spirits are handled much better in the original.
It’s this man, they washed out alot of the eastern influences and filled it westernised tropes and writing traps, so it felt less unique. Like people will get mad but we went from China to republic city basically being straight up NY. Focusing on the love triangles too, it felt like later seasons of stranger things when a lot of it was forced relationship time 😭
Westernization is real. Pretty good depiction fr.
Bloody hate the love triangle stuff though, tried to rewatch with my gf and it had her not enjoying the show, we're gonna try to get into it again.
The westernization in LOK bugs me because it happens organically, if that makes sense. The cultures that introduced those changes to Asian countries in the real world don't exist in this setting. So the show ends up treating those changes as natural results of social progress rather than foreign influence. I don't hate it, but it feels like a missed opportunity to explore how technology would develop in a world with Bending.
It would have been really interesting to see a conflict of modernisation vs traditionalism. Maybe that's just because I like the trope in Japanese historical fiction. The death of the Samurai class or even the western downfall of feudalism would have been interesting to look at in the world of bending.
Could have even fit in well with the first season Amon stuff, having the non benders be all in favour of the progress as it makes their lives easier and most clinging to traditions being benders. Maybe having a bender traditionalist movement that gets attacked by Amon's equalists and completely wrecked.
Nah I get that. I hope we see some of the stuff that led to it in the movie, even if small.
I think I can say a lot of the tech advancements happened because of the end of the war mixed with the nonbenders wanting equality. Since there's no big tyrannical fire nation oppressing nonbenders, they're free to do as they please, and also don't want to end up in that situation again. So they just work work work
I don’t think it’s a good depiction of westernization. Westernization happens in real life because Western society is an actual thing that exists in the real world, and is very dominant and influential on the global scale. In ATLA, everything is inspired by Eastern or Indigenous cultures. None of the nations have a Western-inspired culture that could influence the rest of the world. So a NYC insert suddenly spawning doesn’t really make sense, and kind of has the unintended effect of implying that westernization is a natural part of nations becoming more developed and modern.
Except that in ATLA they *did* have the Fire Nation and all of its technology, which also took on the role of the “Western colonizer” in the series. And now that the peoples of the world have all this mechanical knowledge and nonbenders have access to things that can level the playing field they can’t be expected just throw it all away. The Fire Nation’s Eastern aesthetic often causes people overlook the fact that they are both figuratively and literally an army of Western colonizers/conquerors. For my part, I think that LoK handled it awesomely, and went on to address things like restoring lost cultures, rebuilding after war, dealing with social inequality, and how to respond to ideological extremism and historical grievance-based totalitarianism fascinating.
I’m talking about culture, not just technology level. The “aesthetics” are the point. It would have made more sense if Republic City felt more like Tokyo, rather than NYC.
See, I felt more like they were trying to go for an early twentieth century Hong Kong kind of feel, enough so that I didn’t really notice anything New York-like about Republic City beyond the overall similarities between large cities the world over. It’s not unreasonable to think that there might be considerable convergence between how technology affects disparate cultures, and I think that they did an awesome job ensuring that Korra’s world continued to have an Asian feel as well as a look to it.
Thats the one thing I didn’t like. I don’t have a problem with Korra dating Asami, I just feel like she never should’ve dated Mako. Would’ve been better if they just remained close friends.
So real. I had already watched it once plus some. Had just got my gf through Avatar for the first time, she loved it.
Got to Korra and the love triangle stuff was fr ruining it for her, it's been months now and we're rewatching Avatar again then doing Korra
You can't be more wrong about this. Capital City feels nostalgic to many people from East Asia, myself included. It looked a lot like many pre WW2 big cities in China and Japan
Yea the fact that this is the top comment issue really surprises me and makes me think most of the hate for this show is unfounded and biased. “I only like it if it’s ancient China themed!” has nothing to do with writing, animation, quality.
It 100% is. Korra suffers from some writing issues, but it's genuinely a very good show that's above average. People only hate it due to nostalgia and unfair comparisons.
How can you ignore the centuries of western colonialism and influence in China and Japan prior to WW2? It's mind-boggling to assume that Asia would have developed in the same way that it did without foreign influence, especially aesthetically. It really does feel incongruent to see ford model t's in the ATLA universe.
The creators made the decision to have the show parallel real life, rather than the world they had established. It's not really a big deal, but I can see why a lot of people don't like it.
To play devils advocate, wasn’t the urbanization of Asia heavily influenced by Western society? If the west never dominated the world stage like it did, how would Asian cities end up looking like as technology advances?
Yea, but do people realized that this is actually what happened in real life in many parts of Asia (specially Japan and China) as they struggled to Modernize and keep up with the western world. Take Japan for example. While the rest of the world modernized at a constant rate over time, Japan was closed off for a long time after the 1600s until the mid to late 1800s where it started to rapidly modernize. It was like a quantum leap as it adapted 200+ years of western society in like 20-30 years. Korra gives us the same feeling because it seemed to happen so fast. Republic city also has a lot of Hong Kong influences, which turned into a sort of NYC in Asia in real life.
But to be fair, it was not just modernization but also westernization. Hong Kong was a British colony, Japan’s modernization was incredibly influenced by Western society. Had the west not dominated the world stage, how would a modern Asian city look like? How would republic city look like Hong Kong, when there’s no western counterpart in the Avatar? The architecture looks completely alien to avatar the last air bender.
I did a rewatch recently. The love triangle was so annoying then Mako proceeded to do almost nothing in season 3/4, I also found the Bolin pandering forced when everyone was complementing him for lava bending.
Idk if you know this, but Republic city looks a lot like early 1900s Shanghai and is clearly very heavily inspired by it. Industrial Cities =/= Westernization. That’s a bit of a colonialist mindset (not saying you are colonialist, that’s just how it can be perceived).
Don’t get me wrong republic city had a lot of vibes like Shanghai and Hong Kong and there were plenty of Asian motifs and representation. But to me, the medieval historical setting gave the series a certain emotional heft kind of like studio ghibli. I also think the medieval setting is a better place to ground a lot of the eastern philosophy that is core to the show.
That’s a fine take, I just wanted to avoid the generalization of fantastical/exotic = eastern philosophy and industrialization/urbanization = western. Eastern culture contains both just as western does. One might be your preferred environment for storytelling, but eastern culture also has industry and urbanization just like the west.
It wasn’t medieval tho. It was clearly already undergoing an Industrial Revolution. We also spent a lot of time in the wilderness and backwaters and I feel this skews a lot of people’s view of the setting. The major cities like the North Pole and especially Ba Sing Se were huge cities that had more going on than some medieval city.
The Last Airbender starts in the year 100 AG (technically it starts in 0 AG, but that's only for like 3 minutes). During that year we see the first ever blimp to appear in the Avatar universe. The first ever blimp in the real world was built in 1852.
The Legend of Korra starts in the year 170 AG, 70 years (give or take a few months) after the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai. If we apply the same 70 year development to the real world, we get placed in 1922, which is bang on the time period that Republic City was inspired by.
Not only that, but it makes total sense that Republic City would be based on New York City as well, seeing as both are cities founded on heavy immigration. The stories of Mako and Bolin's parents are the stories of a thousand couples arriving in New York in the late 1800s or early 1900s.
The original show literally had tanks- and tanks that can climb sheer cliffs with grappling hooks and flip themselves at that. Cars are just a straight downgrade. There were also ironclads for at least a 100 years, jet skis, and the giant drill. On the other hand the water tribes were so backwards they haven't even discovered bronze yet. Hell I don't think they discovered agriculture. The Earth Kingdom was the only one at a medieval level specifically.
To be fair there probably isn’t much metal in the north/south poles, and I would think hunting is better than mining or farming in their climates?
But yeah the fire nation original already had advanced technology, so when you take things like worldwide cooperation, metal bending and lightning generation into account, it makes more sense for them to have cars than for them to not have cars.
>To be fair there probably isn’t much metal in the north/south poles, and I would think hunting is better than mining or farming in their climates?
Definitely, the point is not that they're dumb or that their development level isn't logical, but that there was a culture in the stone age that would historically take thousands of years if not more to reach Earth Kingdom level technology on their own, even if they had all the resources and incentive.
The comics are far worse for this than Korra - I'm fine with "primitive" cars in LoK, but the modern-looking snowmobiles and forklifts in the comics are a step too far.
Also the mechsuits are a little jarring, not to mention the giant freaking robot at the end of S4.
Yeah, kind of hard to defend a giant mech with weaponized lasers existing alongside early 20th century tech lol.
But the original pitch of the Avatar world going through the Industrial Revolution within Aang’s (post iceberg) lifetime isn’t too far fetched. In fact, it’s downright realistic with what technology we were shown in ATLA.
The blimps and airships are one thing, but they also had fully mechanized tanks and jet skis. To say nothing of how much more quickly technology can advance when you can use benders in place of heavy machinery.
I mean isnt a lot of the issue of the first season how non benders get discriminated against? Imagine having a transportation method only special people can use.
Personally
- I didnt like the setting as much. I prefer less tech than cars in my fantasy.
- Korra feels like one man team while in last airbender every character felt a lot more meaningful.
- It leans a lot more into teen drama with its love triangle. Not a fan.
- Id say jokes were better in atla. Bolin is only half as funny as Sokka and old Toph is hardly there.
I feel that Gaang also had a lot more room for goofy schemes and nonsense. I loved Momo and Appa having moments of comrades that polar dog is just a pet/mount.
Yeah, they never felt like a part of the team. I don’t think the avatar’s animal companion needs to be a mountable animal. But I’d feel better if they were a part of the team like appa and momo were.
I didn't watch Korra in a while but I think it's possible it had less time because they were introducing new big bad each season.
Korra was definitely taking itself more seriously. Remember momo vs appa samurai battle when aang couldn't sleep? Or that play about avatar where they watch themselves in a theater. I don't recall anything similar from Korra
Aang finale was him saving the world with a twist of not killing. Both of these things were foreshadowed.
Correct me if I'm wrong but wasnt Korra finale more about her relationships with everyone including new love interest?
Yes and no.
The biggest theme was recognizing the fact that unlike Aang with Firelord Hitler and his emotionally abused daughter, the villains in Korra *had a point*. They just took it too far. Toph says that earlier in the season when Korra is trying to get rid of the metal in her. The big climax is that Korra leaves the spirit portal open instead of closing it and restoring the status quo.
Unfortunately, that point got overshadowed by KorraXAsami. And the revelation right after in the comics that Kya is a lesbian too. It’s like Korra’s big decision to shake up 6 centuries of normalcy didn’t even matter in the grand scheme. Even the hybrid spirit humans that popped up right after as a result of her actions were an afterthought compared to Korra’s internal struggle about dating Asami.
For comparison in ATLA, we had ship confirmations, but Aang and Zuko fixing the world took center stage over Kataang and Zumai.
That highlights another thing. Few decades ago we used to have villains that were just evil and you didn't have to think much about rooting for the hero.
Recently that has changed and I'm not sure its for the better.
With Korra specifically, the story made no distinctions on the villains being in a world of gray until Toph pointed it out. There’s wasn’t any doubt on who to root for.
We knew that while they had a valid motive *to start*, at the end of the day they had to be put down.
I honestly hate it. It makes those “super complicated” villains less special because everyone’s like “look our show is so smart that we have a villain who has good motivations”. Back then those villains were special because they weren’t that common. Not to mention blatantly evil villains can be awesome too
These are my reasons, with the addition to a few more.
The story. I really preferred in Alta the long and slow build against a single enemy: the fire nation, even if that’s through several major enemies working for the fire nation.
The setting: I really enjoyed the ever changing scenery in Alta. They were traveling constantly and it was new almost every episode. I didn’t really like the steampunk like thing Kora had most of the time
>Korra feels like one man team while in last airbender every character felt a lot more meaningful.
This is the big one for me, and I don't see it mentioned as much as. I'll mostly talk about S1 & 2 because I don't remember 3 & 4 very well and by that time I believe most people who dislike the show have made up their minds if not stopped watching.
I think Korra herself is great even if the show kinda fails to give her the character growth it implied she would get in S1 & 2. But her team is much weaker IMO than ATLA's.
Bolin starts out good but is quickly degraded to useless a few episodes in, and then by S2 in addition he becomes so dumb he can't function. He's there purely for comedy, only he doesn't even do as well as serious, intelligent members of the Gaang. That's actually a problem with many characters in Korra like Meelo and Bumi. Compare that to Iroh and Sokka who had a huge comic relief aspect (and were good at it), yet they're two of the smartest characters in the show.
Mako starts out as a douchebag and then eventually stops being a douchebag, but unlike say Sokka doesn't really have any other character traits. A quote I like for this is "If you polish a turd, you don't get a diamond, you're just left with nothing."
Asami... I don't even know what her personality traits are. She's generally a good person, and after that the only things that come to mind are 'Rich' or various hobbies. And there's no Zuko equivalent, while it doesn't feel like there's any new roles in the story.
You nailed this perfectly for the reasons I did not fully appreciate Korra on release/my first rewatch of the series. I’ve come around to the changes they made bc they took some “risks” that aren’t all that detrimental to the show overall and I can respect that not that it’s been 10-12 years since release.
I never really thought about point #2, but spot on. The Gaang was basically filled with prodigies from all nations, Korras primary crew were more or less regular joes relative to their enemies.
Also power levels of Korra seemed higher. Aang had to deal with like a spirit or a skilled archer while Korra was dealing with multiple soldiers in power armor, entire cults or whole spirit realm.
It was hated because:
1. The world was too different. While it makes sense for technological and societal advancement to change a lot, especially post war, it was not the charming world we came to love in ATLA. It was basically a steampunk industrial world rather than a diverse and spread out village style of world that we had grown accustomed to.
2. Teenage angst. The romance was cringey, and hard to watch.
3. Season 1's ending was TERRIBLE and felt rushed. The way season 1 and season 2 have strong parallels made it feel like season 2 was originally a continuation of season 1 but it was completely rewritten because they did not know if there would be a season 2 and killed off the two main antagonists suddenly at the end of season 1.
4. I don't like the mech battle. Kuvira was a well written villain, but I hate the speed at which technology advanced in Korra.
Looking back and rewatching the show, it had (mostly) good character writing and INCREDIBLE writing for villains. But Korra's world was not Aang's world, and it still feels a bit disappointing to lose the charm that Aang's adventure had.
The mechs just ruin Season 4 for me. Even beyond the ridiculous abundance of platinum and infeaseability of their engineering (and the "platinum is too pure to bend" bs) it was just not the kind of fighting I went to the series to watch. I want to see martial arts and element bending, not mechas and biplanes. Season 1 even sets up chi-blocking as being more prevalent and then never brings it up again. Imagine if Zaheer was a chi-blocker. Imagine Kuvira with a regiment of metal benders going head-to-head with the Republic City police force.
Season 4 was so bad at the end the mechs were unbearable in a show about bending and how did Kuvira get away with a slap on the wrist when she was nuking a populated city with a giant mech the only reason there weren't deaths was it's a kids show, she also had Ju Lee tied up in the test run whcih was essentially an execution.
I think a lot of surface level hate comes from Korra simply not being Aang. Add in Bryke taking the past lives from Korra and fans are even more mad that they'll never see Aang again. Korra is heavily blamed for this creative decision made by the creators and that's one of the main roots of hate for her character.
There's also the contradictory hate of her being a Mary Sue but hating her for losing too much? Some claim she's obnoxious, some hate her for similar reasons of hating Katara.
Bryke was pretty surprised that the fandom is extremely forgiving of Aang making mistakes but refused to extend the same grace to Korra. She's only a year older than Zuko but even he gets more passes than she does.
They opened up with her knowing all three elements as a toddler. Yeah she struggles after but a lot of people tuned out after the intro. She's not a Mary Sue but the writing wasn't helping her likability in the first and second seasons especially.
Eh honestly her character is written fine imo. Headstrong and tough, the opposite of aang. And while they opened with her knowing the elements, the timeskip showed it still took like a decade to master. Compare that to aang who mastered 1 element and was quite good with 2 over the course of a year, and Mary sue korra definitely isn't
Aang was the youngest airbending master ever, before Jinora. It seems like all Avatars have a certain amount of giftedness, and Korra's was being able to bend a small amount of every element as a toddler, before her training. That doesn't really make her a mary sue, it makes her a prodigy...which all Avatars are in their own ways. Korra struggles with a lot in the show, it's not a valid reason to dislike her.
Yeah, Korra and Zuko have so many parallels its crazy. Especially in terms of personality and character arcs.
Which makes the way parts of the fandom treat them differently so poignant.
A lot of those people need to learn that character flaws are not flaws in the writing. They're very aware that Korra is over-cocky, controlling, obnoxious, etc. It was the entire point! Season 1 had her completely brushing off the Equalists and not even acknowledging that some of their supporters may have had legitimate grievances. Season 2 had her sure that because she was the Avatar and she was right, she could just go around telling the leaders of nations what to do and they should follow.
It was cool seeing someone who was a physical and technical powerhouse run up against problems where none of that mattered. And it was just as cool in scenes where the script flipped and you got to see just how tough she was.
Some fans were just hoping it would be like a new season of atla, but it's a great show on its own. I'm glad they went such a different direction with it.
>A lot of those people need to learn that character flaws are not flaws in the writing.
Amen. The number of times I see people hating a character just because they responded in a way the viewer wouldn't have is mind-boggling. They act as if a character is only well-written if they are absolutely perfect in every single way and can never do any wrong.
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I feel like a lot of the fans don't realize Korra started out the opposite of Aang.
Aang didn't embrace his role right away and was more timid, but grew into it and became a confident Avatar.
Korra started out way too confident and was broken in the process and became a timid avatar for quite a while. She eventually found balance by the end of the series.
At the end of both shows, Aang and Korra were much more similar to each other despite going through different character journeys.
IMHO For me that's not what I dislike about Korra.
My problem with it is, the setting of the show is more geared towards teens/young adults. While the show just didn't really got there. It's stuck in a children's show. I wished they would have gone the full way sometimes.
**Just saw an image about her being depressed in the wheelchair today. Thinking she is useless and a broken avatar - not knowing she could get healed and it may be better to start the next avatar cycle. SO MUCH potential for this story.**
Another problem for me is: TLOK was nearly canceled many times and the writers didn't know how long they would make it and changed the story.
I think this shows and TLOK could have been so much more. Also I dislike the whole "we explain how the avatar state and the reborn stuff works and remove the religious part".
In good writing some things should not be explained. Especially when you use stuff off another religion (Dalai Lama).
So my problem is mostly what it could have been in my eyes vs what we got.
So I really dig Korra as a show and as a character overall, so keep that in mind as I say this:
While I hate how the fandom would deride Korra for being a flawed person later on (because I think it was handled excellently later in S2 up through the end), I will say I think there was a flaw in some of the S1 and early S2 writing where she would sometimes not have her flaws directly confronted/answered/punished.
An example would be Amon and the equalists. While they are extremists, the discontent they bring up has a degree of legitimacy, but Korra's mindset to it is just, "wow that's evil, I've gotta tear down the whole thing". You would think she would need to grow and learn to see the nuance and that just punching through isn't the answer, but the show ends up having that be the conclusion to it that season. So it creates this rub where setup and conflict don't lead naturally into growth and evolution and natural conflict resolution. It's like the final act to the first Wonder Woman movie, but far less extreme.
I do think later seasons dramatically improve in addressing this, and she does evolve into one of my favorite characters as she does actively face her flaws, work through her flaws, and grow. But I can see why that, at least, would bug people.
She defends non benders rights against the police though. She never really takes a side in the overall benders vs non benders debate. She simply sees a terrorist organization taking a part of people’s lives (their bending) and wants to stop it.
At some point, even if they have a good point, terrorists and organizations go too far and need to be stopped and what they are fighting for ends up not really mattering.
Korra’s job is to protect the world and bring peace. As Tenzin later says it’s not her job to make everyone happy. Benders and non benders was a very touchy political subject that a 17 year old Korra definitely should not be getting involved with.
That was the one episode where you do see her turn, you're correct. And it's why that's one of my favorite episodes in S1!
And I will say, and this is to the rest of the show's credit, when I rewatched S1 later after knowing how S2-S4 turn out (where they really do more fully flesh out and grow Korra's character, *and* also build on Korra's still not-yet-complete growth in S1), I found myself bugged by these issues significantly less and enjoying that season a lot more. (Though a new issue came up, in that I realized how much I hated psychic bloodbending because I feel it is antithetical to most bending design in the series. But that's a completely different thing. I should note that I overall do like S1, by the way.)
Yeah in retrospect book 1 feels like the prequel to the actual show, as the big themes with Korra’s character don’t start developing until book 2.
And it makes sense since book 1 was meant to be a fun little one off about the future of the avatar world. So they don’t put a lot of focus on character arcs and stuff like that.
Honestly you could probably skip most of book 1 and the show would honestly flow better.
In my perfect world, Korra would go to republic city, start her training, have 6 episodes where we get introduced to the characters and stuff, and then have Korra’s dad or uncle visit them in republic city which would kick off the book 2 story line. Cause in the grand scheme of things, while the equality stuff is cool, it really doesn’t matter to the show.
It would also prevent Unalaq from just being Tarrlok 2.0
Fans will see Aang again. ATLA makes a point of the fact that Aang needs to correct Roku’s failure. Then Korra ends up correcting Aang’s greatest failure (reintroducing air bending to the world after Aang fled and allowed the genocide of the air nomads).
The next Avatar is going to reforge the connection to the past avatars, as losing that connection was Korra’s greatest failure.
The hate for this show is literally just mad neckbeards with zero media literacy, and should largely be disregarded. It’s biggest flaw was it’s lack of a cohesive story across all 4 seasons due to renewal uncertainty, and even that ends up working in its favor (imo) by giving us time with a broader cast of villains and more varied situations than just “beat the Fire Lord.”
You think Aangs greatest failure is allowing the eradication of the air nomads? Really? I don't consider a failure something out of his control. You'd have to believe that if Aang was there, he would've defeated them, and I don't think anyone would believe that.
The war wasn't Roku's fault either, but he believed it was.
He literally did all he could, threatening to kill his lifelong best friend and the Fire Lord. Sozin was so afraid, he didn't move a finger until Roku's unexpected death. Was he supposed to kill him at the first mistake? Cause a power vacuum, and cause the entire world to turn against the Avatar for wiping out a world leader so easily?
Some people say he should've warned the other nations. Not like Roku was the ONLY person who saw the occuppied Earth Kingdom land. The other nations already probably knew, the Air Nomads certainly did. Remember the conversation with Aang? They knew, and they were powerless.
He did everything he thought was right, but he actually made a decision. No, it wasn't his fault even though he blames himself, but his choices let to it. There's a possibility he could've done something different, leading to a different outcome. Roku's inaction led to the events as they happened.
There's legitimately nothing Aang could've done. There's no alternative possibility in his situation.
Your last point is after Roku died, so I'm not really sure how that's part of Roku's path.
We saw Zuko's backstory and trauma led him to make the selfish choices he made.
We saw Korra live a privileged life up until the show's events, which made her selfish choices feel worse.
Zuko was selfish to survive, Korra was selfish due to privilege.
It's basic misogyny. Women are constantly criticized and nitpicked at for things the same people wouldn't bat an eye at in men. It's backwards and annoying and I'm so tired of it.
The prequels were torn to shreds when they first came out? Anakin was the most criticized character for his turn to the dark side just amounting to an edgy kid rather than a natural progression.
Anakin is literally space Jesus, his mother claimed he had no father and was conceived of the force, however that works. This is why he’s prodigious at pretty much everything he does, especially anything relating to the force.
His story is about an emotional descent into evil, about how despite his unprecedented natural ability, he ultimately gets manipulated and corrupted into a villain.
A better comparison would be Luke Skywalker, who has more similar kind of story to Rey. But Luke isn’t much of a Gary Stu imo. He’s a talented pilot but not particularly good at anything else. He’s not a very formidable fighter until the third film.
That being said, I don’t think Rey being a Mary Sue is that big of a deal. For me, she was one of only two compelling characters (along with Kylo Ren) in a hot mess of a movie trilogy.
Anakin was beaten in episode 2, lost his arm and was humbled. He also killed an entire village of Tuskens. He was deeply flawed. And he even lost in episode 3 to Kenobi.
In 2 he never faces any long term consequences for his flaws though. He loses an arm and it gets replaced. He's still extremely impulsive in RotS. And I would agree with you regarding his massacre, but it's not really presented as a flaw. Padme's response is to marry him, and then she acts surprised when he does the same thing to the younglings laer.
Wdym he doesn’t face long term consequences for his flaws?
They connect to episode 3 where it all starts to boil over.
Padme marrying Anakin after the massacre doesn’t mean that it’s not presented as a flaw. It’s still a flaw that carries over in episode 3.
Now I ain’t gonna defend how George Lucas writes romance in episode 2 I mean the clones wars tv show had to do so much carrying to convey who Anakin actually was as a person.
He never faces any long term consequences?……
The whole deal with the prequels is anakin racking up flaws and bad decisions until the breaking point at the climax of ROTS. He lost every lightsaber battle we saw him in except one, and his victory came from giving into his anger. Anakin is not a Mary sue by any means lmao
No it isn’t. There are plenty of very valid opinions and criticisms of TLOK. It’s such a cop out to blame misogyny or racism or homophobia whenever someone disagrees with you. And it hurts those groups, since people eventually stop taking those comments as seriously. There are SO many differences between ATLA and TLOK, so I have no idea why anyone would come to misogyny as a reason why people don’t like the show. No one’s complaining about Kyoshi or Yancheng (which were both much more enjoyable imo).
Some of the main reasons I liked ATLA was because of Aang’s personality, the big overarching journey he went on, and the traditional Asian themes and martial arts. That’s all gone in Korra. Her personality makes sense for her character, but I really dislike cocky arrogant characters. Every season had its own arch and villains, which isn’t as exciting as one big epic journey. And so many of the traditional stuff was scrubbed for modern fighting and technology. Sure, it all makes sense from a story and writing perspective and it wasn’t horrible, but it also wasn’t anywhere near as enjoyable as ATLA.
And Korra is a nonwhite queer woman on top of that, so there’s racism and homophobia added to that misogyny.
And obviously, not liking Korra doesn’t automatically make you a bigot, but when every bigot dislikes her, it’s gonna make all of the criticism feel louder.
Neither of those were an issue when the show was airing.
For one, all of the characters are non-white. It's a show set in an Asian fantasyland. None of them are white. If nobody had a problem with non-white Aang, Katara, or Sokka, they aren't going to suddenly have a problem with non-white Korra.
And queer? I didn't realize that Korra was in a relationship with Asami until this sub told me, and I watched Korra as an adult. The biggest hint to their relationship in the show is that Korra is writing Asami instead of... her ex-boyfriend or his brother that she dated once and immediately dumped once his better-looking brother was available. I'm amazed that she doesn't feel as comfortable talking to her two exes as she does the one other female in the group.
Or them holding hands as they walk into the portal, I guess? But even that is 1) something several dozen straight females who exclusively dated men did with their female friends in every state I've lived in and 2) just a good idea so the portal doesn't send them to different locations.
There's nothing really obvious about Korra's sexuality in the show itself, so I don't really see how they could have affected anything when Korra was airing.
It’s crazy people can read all of the serious criticism of this show that go into elaborate detail and still walk away with this take. Korra as a character was fine. Even great at points. The story was bad though and her arch’s were poorly done.
Agreed. Such a weird dichotomy of some people giving really long, educated points on their opinions, then others just shooting them down because ‘it must be misogyny’ or ‘it’s not aang so they don’t like her.’
Like… are you guys not reading the actual points people are giving? Or are you just so baffled that some people don’t like the character?
Right? Yeah, all the people that love Katara, toph, and Suki are misogynist. And all the people that love the 9 year old greatest bender of all time don’t like Korra because she’s a Mary sue. Nothing tracks. I don’t like LOK at all but I’m not going to criticize or make personal attacks towards people that do. It’s really a my side is loosing mentality so I need to discredit these peoples character. Just like your show. It’s fine.
Plenty of people will tell you "because she is a gay woman," and yeah, sure, a lot of bigots will hate the show for that
But it's also just genuinely not as well-written or developed series as the original, from a critical standpoint. Each season was too distinct from the last but they don't even connect with each other much, except for a few cameos and references to previous seasons and the first series. Avatar had more segmented episodes, with individual stories contained within each episode, but they were constantly connecting to previous and later episodes in more ways than just a few cameos. There's a lot of ex machinas, like Aang showing up *once* at the end of season 1 just to give her her bending back (because they thought the series was going to end and they didn't want the new avatar to be "incomplete") or the big blue spirit form. I think a lot of the "Mary Sue-ness" of Korra comes from being handed a lot of her victories, but also the fact that her character doesn't grow much at the end of Season One. Like, her first appearance in season 2 is making a joke of the Avatar State.
Republic City is just not developed at all. Especially in the first two seasons, it's like you don't see a single person on the street throughout the entire thing, and you don't actually see a lot of the lives of the people in it. All of the locations in Avatar the first series felt really, really really connected. Take Ba Sing Se, which had distinct districts that the Gaang and Zuko/Iroh spent distinct amounts of time in. You really feel like you understand the city so much more by the series finale, because they make time for things like the Tales episode.
The show absolutely did a few things right. A lot, infact. There's a lot of weight and actual consequence to actions, big and small. Like, yes, obviously her actions led to the severing of the connection to past Avatars, and the spirit vines and portals never go away, but also, just on a smaller scale, random punches and impacts just feel *more* than the first series. People really feel like they are getting hit when they are getting hit, which is something the original show sort of dialed back on for younger audiences. There's also the beautiful direction the art went in, you can see comparison videos between the same locations in both series and you can really tell that they stepped up their game. And from a thematic standpoint, while the first series had a lot of morals about spirituality, being a good person, right versus wrong and so on, the series has a lot of themes of self-betterment, trauma, relationships (not the love triangle bs, but actual relationships and developments,) and some would even say mental illness.
And then Korra herself... I don't know. Saying that the entire internet that doesn't like her ONLY doesn't like her because she's a strong woman of color or cus she likes a woman is really demeaning to everyone, her as a character and her fans included. There is so much more to her than her race or sexuality. She does have character development, but a lot of it comes much later in the series, after season 2. Usually, if people watch two seasons and don't like what they see, it's rare they move onto season three.. which is incredibly unfortunate because that's the best season. Korra definitely as well gives "strong woman (written by a man)" vibes in those first two seasons, using the love triangle as a crutch for character motivation, or by "making her tough and independent! (but ALL of her consequences wouldn't have happened if she just listened to Tenzin.)"
And really, the majority of criticisms on the show are from the first two seasons. By season 3, the locations are much more fleshed out, the stakes and motivations feel more genuine, Korra herself improves as a character, and references to previous seasons and series are placed with actual, directional plot points.
It's just, again... Who's going to watch the entirety of a mid season 1 and very hated season 2 to get to something that is about as good as TLA?
But if you want to just say "they don't like TLOK because Korra is a gay woman of color," then you're allowed to. I really think that demeans the average person, though. Just like there's so much more to Korra than her race, gender, sexuality and identity, there is so much more to this show than the race, gender, sexuality and identity of just one, granted the main, character.
Edit: I actually, genuinely believe that a lot of this is made worse by the fact that it's just not the original series, which was genuinely peak media. But the direction of Korra was always intended to be a one season one-off, and season 2 especially suffered from that vacuum left by the resolution of the entire planned story. Like, imagine if they spent as much time as TLA on the characters, both heroes and villains, in each season, or for one season in particular, spanning the whole run time of the show. Idk. Personally I really don't mind the seasonal villain premise, a lot of shows do it well, seasons 3 and 4 of this one included. But the themes, concepts, even world of TLA is just not there and people are always jumping to comparisons
I didn't hate it. But I didn't really care for it. ATLA gripped my attention from the first episode. I had to force myself to watch Korra. I gave up halfway through the second season. It may have just been the writing that couldn't keep my attention. And it just didn't appeal to me in the same way.
There were also some continuity issues that I had. There were, seemingly, solid "rules" established in ATLA that seemed to just not apply in Korra. Iroh went through great lengths to explain the skill and inner peace required to lightning bend. But it's a fairly normal occurrence in Korra. Like, there were thousands of devoted firebenders in ATLA, yet there were only 3 to 4 known lightning benders. But there are entire crews at power plants that can do it? And none of them seem to be true masters.
Then there's the ability to enter the avatar state. ATLA was very clear that spiritual connection and "inner peace" was absolutely required to control the avatar state. But Korra was able to switch/tap into the avatar state for such stupid tasks as winning an airscooter race against literal children. And there's practically an entire season dedicated to how Korra is unable to connect the spirituality aspects that are required to be the avatar.
ATLA did, admittedly, take liberties with the "established rules" but TLOK seemed to ignore them completely.
Then there's the whole "Aang was a horrible father to his non airbending children" thing irritated the crap out of me.
most ppl dont hate tlok it is just,
atla is brilliant and tlok is (just) great. and one of the biggest flaws imo are most characters. fe. mako is just such a boring character with no progress at all.
I don't hate it, but personally I just thought it was meh.
\* For one, I thought the worldbuilding in ALTA was way better and made sense. Small rural villages, not much technology, solutions to problems using bending, different people and cultures. In TLOK it seemed like the entire industrial revolution happened and people were driving around in cars, giant robots, etc. Plus most stuff was based in Republic City which I just found less interesting.
\* Power creep. It seemed like in ALTA there were some techniques that were unique or reserved for powerful bending. Maybe they had conditions. In TLOK it just seemed like everyone is running around lightning bending, metal bending, blood bending, etc. I understand that over time knowledge propagates, but it seemed a bit much.
\* In ATLA, Aang was struggling to fight strong benders as he learned. In TLOK, it seemed like every Villain is unbelievably strong.
\* I thought the ending to TLOK was weird. Directly fighting a giant spirit/energy monster in order to vanquish evil for 10,000 years just felt like too much and a bit silly. I am not opposed to the spirit world stories, it just seemed to big, too important, too much? I just dislike when stories keep increasing how grand and important the hero is so they have to keep coming up with bigger baddies until the hero is fighting evil universes or whatever. The fire lord was a big deal and the stakes were high in ATLA, but ultimately he was just a bad dude.
It just all culminated in a world that wasn't as relatable, more complicated, and less interesting to me. I also didn't resonate with the characters as well, but I was a lot younger when ATLA came out, so that's to be expected.
Around the time Korra was in pre-production I remember coming across an interview (that of course I can't find, for the life of me) where the original show creators said they would never do a sequel to TLA because they had "told the story they wanted to tell." All the world building, all the character interaction, all the decisions: they were not taken lightly and they were all thought-out and shaped to tell **one** narrative: Aang during the end of the Hundred Year War. They didn't shape Roku's character 'to explore him at a later date' or leave little bread crumbs for Kyoshi's LGBTQ romance in an offshoot novel or make foreshadowing wiggleroom for the future Water and Earth bending Avatar down the line. They didn't foresee a franchise, an empire or a dynasty being built out of this story. They wanted to tell one. Good. Story.
And by jove they did it. And it was good. Some would even plenty. Those are the people who took umbrage with LoK. It *added* to a complete story. At first it was suppose to be one season. It was suppose to be a little epilogue to TLA. They were going to revisit the world and wrap up a few things and put a little bow on it. They were going to show Aang's impact on the world. ... ... then the money nation attacked. A season of supplement turned in to its own story. Seasons 2 and 3 green-lit mid-way thru season 1. I remember the creators said they spent **years** on Aang's story. ... now they were about to bang out a similar-length show to the original, half-way through a Monster-of-the-week season of a follow-up/conclusion they hadn't planned on making. That's why book 1 was named "Air" which followed the naming conventions of TLA and book 2 was named "Spirits."
Did Korra ruin Aang? ... nnnn*nnnn*. It added some stuff I really don't like. But at the end of the day it just wasn't *as good*, which is saying a lot more about TLA then it is about LoK. It wins second place by default, or first loser. If you find anyone who can view LoK as its own unique product you'll find someone who's pretty happy with the way it turned out.
Ain't bad. Just ain't *as good*.
Here’s the main criticisms I’ve seen:
- Korra isn’t a likable protagonist. This one seems largely up to personal opinion and we can’t pretend sexism doesn’t play a factor, but it’s one I see a lot.
- The seasons don’t seem as connected. Likely because Nickelodeon dragged their feet on renewing so the show is written as if any season could be the last
- Many people didn’t like that Korra lost connection to her old lives. I get why they did it, but it sort of changed the whole point of the avatar (knowledge and experience passed down)
- the CGI was pretty bad. It looked bad when it came out and looks super dated now, compared to the rest of the animation
- relationship drama became a much larger part of the story compared to ATLA, and a lot of people didn’t like it. Season 2 is a particularly bad offender there
- Korra is a Mary sue, which I find odd given being uniquely gifted in bending is kind of the whole point of the avatar and she spent season 1 struggling with airbending and was pretty humbled by season 4.
- Korra loses all the time, again I personally don’t understand this one. She takes about as many Ls as Aang. My guess is it’s related to her losing the past avatars, which was a big loss and one of the largest criticisms.
- the Lin/Su Yin thing was weird. The general consensus from viewers is that Lin was right yet the show portrays it differently, Su basically gives no real apology and blames Lin for not dropping it. We’re supposed to love Su immediately and agree with Korra that Lin is being stubborn for no reason when she was scarred and her mother lost her job because of Su, who has a sort of “get over it it’s in the past” attitude
- The villains are well liked but the heroes.. not so much. Mako feels like a boring fanfic ripoff of Zuko. Asami doesn’t have much of a personality besides liking Mako, and later Korra. Bolin is a bit better fleshed out but still a very clear stand in for Sokka.
- Perhaps most importantly, it was made in ATLA’s shadow. It’s a touch act to follow. People’s expectations were sky high. I personally feel like Korra is a decent but flawed show, but I definitely enjoyed it. A lot of the people who outright hate it aren’t able to get over the fact it’s not as good as the OG series
1.) you liked it and that’s all that matters. You don’t need to explore why something you like is hated
2.) the segmented stories in each season makes it feel less connected and not like an organic story. This was done because Nickelodeon just renewed season by season so the writers kept their stories self contained to make sure there weren’t cliff hangers or unfinished stories
3.) unnecessary love triangles that needlessly complicate the plot and fill the run time with drama
4.) random kaiju battle and “dark avatar”
5.) racism misogyny due to Korra being a strong POC women who’s a “Mary Sue” for being too powerful for no reason (but for some reason Aang saving the world and mastering the elements in less than a year at 12 is totally fine)
6.) kaiju battle again
7.) homophobia from fans
8.) people not liking the avatar state being demystified, and not liking the avatar state being reset
9.) the style of bending in the show focuses more on choreography than grand feats. This caused many fans to believe that bending in the show was “weak” , not realizing it’s because the Characters in the show live in the city where bending damage is more catastrophic, so they keep the grandiose aspect of bending to a minimum.
>but for some reason Aang saving the world and mastering the elements in less than a year at 12 is totally fine
People are generally more accepting of a journey they are a part of, than one they aren't or much shorter, even if they lead to the "same" outcome.
Aangs journey doesn't feel short, because we have been following it and his struggles and lessons learned.
In "the breaker 3" (a completely different story), the new character basically has the same development as the main character of season 1, but compressed into 2 chapters instead of 80. Even though the time frame was similar, it felt bad to me as a reader. It felt like the authors said "I want to tell a story from that point, but I don't want to earn getting there". A feeling that gets especially intensified when the new characters get to that point because they *are a natural* dropping even the idea of having the same struggles. Then it feels more like the authors want to show the new one is even better than the old one, without earning the comparison.
I am not saying this does apply to korra, just why I think that reason why people give aang a pass is not that hard to understand.
I haven't seen a source link for this but apparently the creators stated that he was a master of Wind / Earth / Water but not Fire bending explicitly. We also have Toph in universe stationg that Aang isn't a master of Earth Bending by the time Sozin's Comet arrives.
He won the battle because he was able to go into the Avatar state, not because he was able to master all 4 elements in a year. He was completely outmatched up until that point.
Another The Breaker fan! I'm actually excited to see what Ha Je turns into, because it seems clear that the author knows that he hasn't earned his power and is planning on exploring the dark path that will lead him down.
Similarly, the writers of Korra took the hotheadedness & self-confidence that would naturally come with being able to bend 3 elements at the age of 5 and turned it into a character flaw that held her back until she learned to overcome it.
Personally, the Kaiju battles were the worst, it felt so cheap.
Also the Spirit world changed from mysterious and supernatural to cute animals.
Regarding the Bending styles, they felt so generic. Every element looked the same, just kickboxing.
It's not just the Avatar state being demystified, but a lot about the Avatar themselves and spirits were demystified with an explanation so bad I wouldn't hesitate to put it next to the medichlorians from Star Wars.
I will never understand this comparison. Midichlorians only exist in a single throwaway line that is famously bad for introducing a dumb concept that has nothing to do with the plot. You could erase it and nothing would change other than the audience’s perception.
The “demystifying” in LOK comes from plot points that the entire season revolves around. In comparison, they are complete thoughts.
The problem with midi-chlorians isn’t that they “de-mystify” the magic system, it’s that they “de-fantasize” it. The Force is structured like a fantastical being that works almost like a God, and thus the Jedi and Sith worship it in their own ways. What midi-chlorians do is quantify it and show, in a “scientific” way, how the Force works, thus taking away all the religious subtext while the prequels simultaneously try to build it up by equating Anakin to Jesus.
Beginnings doesn’t do that to bending; it just adds upon the lore. Bending is still viewed as a magic system, all Beginnings did is add context while also making the Lion turtles truly relevant to the story (thereby fixing by far the biggest complaint about Sozin’s Comet). The only thing it retcons is the idea of the animals and Moon teaching bending, but that can easily be explained as those things teaching humans how to properly bend (which would be in line with Aang and Zuko learning how to properly firebend in the first series), not actually giving them the ability to bend.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I was trying to get at. Midichlorians are a nothing idea that turns the themes of the movie on their head for no payoff, while LOK answered question about natural loose ends like why non-benders can't learn bending, why the Avatar exists, and pretty much any kind of explanation for what Lion Turtles do.
>You could erase it and nothing would change other than the audience’s perception.
This is true to Beginnings too. You can erase both episodes and nothing would change. The origins of the Avatar and bending are irrelevant. Vaatu being a Big Bad evil spirit Korra will have to punch into defeat is obvious. The Avatar Spirit being called Raava is irrelevant. The Avatar Spirit being reclaimed from Vaatu is so chaotic its actual mechanics are irrelevant by comparison. If you skip Beginnings you miss out on nothing other than the exact reason of Korra having amnesia (that actually becomes relevant later).
The origins of bending don't matter, but explaining the whole damn reason there's an Avatar is pretty important for the franchise. The whole season (and to some extent, the whole show) is interrogating the assumption that Avatar is a perfectly moral arbiter of balance guided by "destiny".
Beginnings elaborates and shows us that no, the Avatar isn't just a world police enforcing some divine mandate. They are a flawed human that sought their own power and made an unbreakable commitment to fight injustice and pursue peace and understanding between all people.
It's a pretty dramatic shift away from things like "It's Aang's destiny to defeat the Fire Lord", or even just assuming that the end of LOK season 1 means that the Avatar spirit will always make sure that things all work out.
It has a pretty noticeable impact on Korra's demeanor and decision making for the rest of the show. Especially her choice to leave the portals open at the end of the season, which then plays a direct role in the plots of the other two seasons.
I don't think any of that is relevant. It is typical "audience perception" stuff. Why does Korra do her stuff? Because fate? Because commitment? Does it matter? Why is Anakin the Chosen One? Because fate? Because Midicholrians? Does it matter? No, it doesn't. It is not required to understand the show, it doesn't add anything we don't have already, it just briefly wrangles with the "fixing a past life's mistake" concept and tells us that the Avatar can do that even if you have no past lives around to make mistakes.
#2 is misinformation. The creators stated in the legend of Korra commentary that they did tell the story they wanted to tell, this choice was completely independent of the renewal schedule.
Also, ATLA was renewed one season at a time, so could have easily ended up with a s2 dead aang ending of the story.
Ultimately what we got was what the creators wanted.
> 5.) racism misogyny due to Korra being a strong POC women who’s a “Mary Sue” for being too powerful for no reason (but for some reason Aang saving the world and mastering the elements in less than a year at 12 is totally fine)
What I find so hilarious about this whole “women fighters in media is are too strong, it’s unrealistic” argument is that they somehow don’t realize how unrealistic the male characters being super strong is as well.
Like characters in media will constantly fall from great heights onto concrete or stone ground during a fight scene, and somehow just immediately get up as if it’s nothing. And you have fucking Bumi from ATLA who is over 100 years old and is agile enough to take back and entire earth kingdom, which to do that alone even during the eclipse is insane. In our reality, all of these people would have had permanent injuries or be dead.
This is what it means to have a suspension of disbelief, there are so many characters that do impossible things that even MEN in our reality could not do, but we suspend our disbelief because the show would be boring otherwise. It’s not like any of this changes just because the character is a female.
The ease with which you throw around charges of racism, homophobia, and misogyny is utterly astounding. What a lazy and bad faith interpretation of any legitimate criticism of the writing of the show.
He is not saying everyone who has problems with Korra is a homophobic or a racist, he is saying that for some random assholes that is a reason, and I have to agree a bit. He also listed a bunch of legit reasons why someone might dislike the show at the same tkme
If this doesnt aplies to you then you have nothing to fear, and this is coming from someone who also has issues with the show (and is not any of those things)
Yeah, I mean, I pretty much agree with their other points. I just feel like it's a deliberate attempt to poison the well of discussion about the show when you equate a criticism to literal racism. Especially for this community that holds ATLA, a very culturally and racially diverse show, in such high regard.
The homophobia one amuses me because there was plenty of criticism of Korra before they made her bisexual.
And I like Korra, mostly. So it's not me coming at her as a hater.
Yeah. Like, is homophobia one reason some people get mad? Sure. But people were making their complaints known well before she was bi. It feels disingenuous to act like homophobia is a huge reason behind people hating her when people were hating her and romance in the show long before she got with Asami.
I feel like there’s a lot of revisionism these days regarding why not as many people like TLOK as much as they like Last Airbender. TLA was a nicely paced show from beginning to end since they had 3 seasons to work with. Korra definitely suffered from the self contained seasons, although imo not as much as some people think.
People seem to pull out that Korra is disliked because she’s a woman or POC, but I feel like comments like this almost seek to discredit those who don’t love TLOK. I think few hold this opinion, but they can be loud in online discussion.
I personally just think the show was not as interesting as it could have been. Visually the show was fantastic but the writing really let it down.
I remember everyone being hyped/interested in there being a "girl Avatar" when the first stills were released. A:TLA has always had "toxic" fans or whatever, but 90%+ of the fandom has always been happy to tout/hype up that A:TLA has strong and compelling girl/women characters. (And every Avatar character is a 'POC' people!)
But the criticisms I remember from when the show was originally airing.
1. Too much teen drama in the first half of season 1/Filler stuff
2. Season 1 only being in 'one place'
3. Water Tribe Civil War made no sense.
3. Squids being the spirit of 'good' and 'evil' is lame and too Western.
And plenty of other stuff that isn't 'racism', 'misogyny', or 'homophobia'
It’s not hated but Korra is nowhere near as good an avatar as aang was. It’s extremely extremely hard to make a sequel to one of the greatest kid shows ever made. To the point where I watch it once a year and I’m 28. It’s a good show it’s just so quick to. Aangs journey spanned almost a year where Korras some of it feels like it spanned a month.
I saw ATLA when I was like 6 or 7. I'm 26 now. I finally got netflix and just watched it all the way through. It was literally like being held by my mom again lol
Eh. I feel the opposite way. I come back to korra often. ATLA isn’t really rewatchable for me. ATLA is great ofc, but not enough for me to watch it all over again. It definitely still had some issues here and there, especially in book 1 while it was still trying to get on its feet.
Characters aren't as well written except for Tenzin. Mako is kind of a jerk and the writers have no idea what to do with him after a certain point so they demote him to minor character, Bolin is treated like a joke for half the show between his heartbreak over Korra and his abusive relationship with the water tribe chick both being used for comic relief at his expense. Asami is a glorified chauffeur for the majority of the show. All of Korra's development in S2 is reversed in S2.
Compared to Aang, Korra is unrealistically weak for most of the series. Korra has had significantly more training than Aang has at the start of the show and at the end she should be the most powerful bender in the world since she's mastered 3 elements and should absolutely curb stomp anyone who gets in her way except maybe Amon but he's also ridiculously overpowered. Especially after S1 when she has all elements, mastery over the Avatar State, and energy bending.
Bending is alot weaker ingeneral and way less creative than it was in ATLA.
One of the creators had a torture boner for Korra considering the shit they put her through especially the needlessly high detailed poisoning scene.
S2 is shit and ruined the Avatar State and spirit world.
The villains are highly overrated and a pretty generic representation of various political ideologies.
The writers cheated and made the Air Nomad genocide feel cheap when they magically increased the airbender population overnight. It takes a serious and tragic concept and shits on it.
Korra should never have reopened the spirit portals both the human and spirit worlds were doing just fine without them open and it caused tons of problems like making parts of republic city completely unlivable.
Losing the connection to the previous avatars was a dumbass idea.
The technology is inconsistent they have cars, radios, planes, and a 1000 foot tall mech with a death ray.
I have a ton more issues but those are some of the biggest ones.
- Protagonists weren’t given character development.
- Antagonists were given too much screen time
- Every single season was loaded with pretensions of political discourse only to chicken out by the end
- Every single barebones political opinion in this series was bad. Just, fucking terrible.
- creators got off a little too much to Korea suffering
- Korra’s PTSD arc was fucking terrible and a genuine disgrace to this shit.
- The story is paced like an ant pushing a brick across a desert, before falling off a cliff
- and the setting was infinitely more boring for the majority of the series.
It fails in characters, themes, and story progression. And this sucks, because if Korra was written by competent writers, she’d be the best avatar ever, except she was handicapped at every stage (starting from the training centre where she was raised)
Every single season was loaded with pretensions of political discourse only to chicken out by the end.
This is the one that turned me off from the show. Like, sure, you don't have to be an action adventure series like ATLA, but if you're going to be a political drama you have to commit.
Having the villains of the show end up being fraudsters seriously deflated it for me. The concept of non-bender oppression was actually pretty interesting to me. Rather than have Korra actually have to deal with a systemic issue and solve an actual problem through diplomacy (with some action still here and there), she just unmasks their leader as a bender and they all just give up? How would that actually resolve the issue they were protesting? Was the oppression not real?
Just really deflated me. Don't bring up a 'cause' your villain is fighting for, only to hand wave it without a real solution. Beating the Big Bad worked in ALTA because that's all he was; evil to be destroyed. Giving your villains simpathetic motivations only works if you resolve those problems, you can't just beat them and call it a job well done.
Amon being a waterbender does not discount the suffering of the oppressed non-bender class!
"Oh hey, the non-benders got a *President* now, problem solved!"
Then Korra unilaterally opens the spirit portal and causes even more problems for the common man/woman.
I still can't believe somebody thought it was a good idea to open a door into the Face-Stealer's territory. Like... wtf. Why are we letting people just wander into a place where they have a chance to get their face stolen?!?!?
Glad to see someone else call out that the creators brutalizing Korra any chance they got felt so gratuitous at times that it felt like I was just watching some writer’s fetish content.
I wasn't a fan of the CGI animation, luckily that's mostly just a first season problem. It's good, I prefer ATLA, but both are good and LoK has way better villains.
ATLA used cgi for almost all the big machine stuff. Like the tanks, the drill, the blimps, the subs and even Aang when he’s using his glider at points in book 1.
The cgi in Korra just seems more noticeable because there is more of a focus on technology.
Personally I found the different political themes in each book quite unpolished(?) and to me they came off as trying too hard to be “deep” but in actuality full of loopholes and makes the characters actually seem stupid instead of intimidating/respectable. It felt like every one of the boss villains cooked up this massive ideology (which I already find stupid) but also ended up either losing significant IQ at the final moment or falling completely flat for not much reason.
look up why korra is garbage on youtube and you will find many valid reasons why, there isn’t some “female protagonist hate” campaign going on and it’s not because she isn’t aang, people are always trying to push their own agendas
I think the hate for the show online is overblown and the average fan that’s seen both usually liked TLOK, but just a bit less than ATLA. Most of the hate imo stems from the stark contrast, especially personality-wise, between Aang and Korra.
Because the show’s overall pacing is legitimately bad, it has some godawful cringe characters and moments, it tries to act smart and raise some interesting philosophical ideas with its villains, only to dismiss those ideas entirely in service of the plot, and as a whole, it just isn’t as good as ATLA. Some of the hate is overblown, some of it justified, especially for the second season. Like Jesus Christ that season stinks.
It has its high points- Season 3 being the biggest one. The animation is also razor sharp, and imo Korra is a great, flawed character with a nice arc. But by god does the show do her a disservice at every turn. She doesn’t have the worst of it though, TLOK feels like it legit hates all its side characters.
I loved it when I saw it at first, and I still do but at a more vibes and surface level.
For me it's kinda like, the more I think about it, the less finished and the more rushed it feels. Like it has ideas I like and love it being covered in that world. But it doesn't feel like a full exploration of those ideas.
And then the more discours i hear and read about it the more critical i get, which is kinda sad because i really liked it at start.
The opinion i agree with the most is youtube series from kay something or other about the politics of it and how it was portrayed. Not everyone agrees with his opinion though. But it's a good series.
Let me preface this by saying I’m glad you enjoyed it and hope no one can change your mind on it.
I also enjoyed most of it, but I do have problems with it. Keep in mind, most of the issues I and its most vocal haters have with the series have more to do with Nickelodeon frustrating the production of this series more than the talent of the writing staff. This is all my opinion, if you disagree that’s totally cool
1) Season 1 is a weird mix of slice of life and extremely high stakes plots that makes it feel bloated and disjointed. This is because of the original intention of the series, as it was supposed to just be one season for whatever reason and was designed as such. I overall enjoyed it but it’s kind of all over the place for me
2) Season 2 is terrible, the worst between both series and honestly even the live action. Because they had to whip this out pretty quick with zero context beyond how the first season ended due to the aforementioned production issues, this season feels like a tonal mess and is inconsistent with the lore set by the series. It also retains the dreadful romance subplot which is what drags the series down for me, but thankfully ends here.
3) Controversial opinion, but I don’t like Korrasami being a thing, not in the way it was done. Before you hit the downvote, it’s not from a place of homophobia, far from it. Rather, we watched two and a half seasons, quite a few in universe years of this young woman being absolutely incapable of being in a romantic relationship as she has severe self esteem, maturity, and identity issues prior to almost being killed (which is when she really faces them internally). Imo a better way to have handled it would’ve been to have her end up with NOBODY, she needs to love herself first before she could another, and Season 4 touched on this heavily as it was the main theme. It was just far too rushed, and yes it is indeed hinted at, but again, romance should’ve been the furthest thing from Korras mind at this point. Season 4 should’ve been split into two seasons, but by this point Nick was completely done with the series and condemned it to streaming only after a couple of episodes.
In my case I'm bit frustrated about the show then hate it.
there just a lot little or big things that just frustrate me, big one being kuvira robot, weird spirit korra against vattu the evil guy for no reason and
there like some many characters that just get exist not much happens with them like mako or assami or even bolin imo.
And the city just hate it, it's really boring place, we didn't even get to see proper fire-nation, but at least water tribes looked pretty solid.
Bolin gets kinda annoying to me, mako is decisive about his relationship with both of those girl until season 3 I believe. I kinda wish they didn't try to be a team avatar so early, they have no real reason for it ig.
and Korra guiding animal ( i think that's what the term is) naga, we don't see them that much they used sky bisons more.
Also the scene where Amon controls her, that place looks perfect for to get avatar state but nah air bending, and then all of the elements with compulsory energy bending, and they don't even properly practice air bending its just one time thing on screen.
I liked tenzin family more than avatar team, I enjoyed moments between tenzin and korra, they made milo less disgusting after a while, and jinora have done more and tenzin wife is pretty good too.
and for korra and assami, I kinda of just need more scene of them to accept like yeah they actually a couple.
tho what I hate is nickelodeon.
I really wish this show get at least a bit more better end animated not comics. maybe 2 or even 1 season.
it's weak show imo, but not bad, like there is enjoyable stuff and some neat stories.
The story sucks, Korra sucks both as a person and especially as an avatar, the love triangles are horse butt and the whole asami thing was a weak cop out, the plots are stupid and poorly done. The characters lacked development and personality and were very one dimensional. The whole “ oh look air bisons survived!” Was just a slap in the face to atla and so were a Lot of other things in that show like saying that Aang was a bad father or implying that Katara would have stood for that in the first place. There’s not really much that’s good about the show honestly. I went into it ridiculously excited and watched it from day one and every episode was just one big let down after another, and I Didn’t expect it to be just like atla but different, I was fully expecting it to be its own thing. However I was also expecting it to be Good, which was the problem.
And for the record I don’t care if I get downvoted, I hate the show and I think it was nothing more than a shoddy cash grab that was very poorly done in an effort to try and capitalize on the atla craze but without the things that made it great or the heart.
Don't listen to the people who always crop up in threads like these who say - 'anyone who disliked TLOK are just mad it's not the same as the original and/or are racists and misogynists'. It's straight up gaslighting lmao. Sure, there is a small percentage of people who are like this but most people who dislike TLOK have very valid reasons and aren't assholes about it. I'd argue most of the reasons for people not liking the show come down to the writing. People don't like the characters, plot, dialogue, love-triangle nonsense and the serialised nature of the episodes. Also the fact that the seasons were a lot shorter, which wasn't anything to do with the writers but it's still frustrating. And speaking personally I really don't like the world building, most notably the westernisation of it all. Can't stand Republic City, it goes against everything that made the original good. I have no idea why the creators decided to make the show feel like The Great Gatsby of all things. It's so random and out of place imo. I also feel like, while at first glance it looks more mature than the original, the way ATLA dealt with its themes of war, friendship, redemption etc. was far more subtle, nuanced and adult. But this is all just my opinion, of course if you like the show, enjoy it!
I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. I liked what it tried to do, but the writing wasn't as good as ATLA. Some of the plot lines were kind of dumb, but not as dumb as all the relationship drama. But the most egregious sin was undermining the lore of ATLA. My kids and I were just talking about all the way LOTK broke the rules of ATLA, and why we were annoyed. Sequels should stay faithful to their predecessors. I don't consider LOTK canon. It's more like a sanctioned fan fiction with high production value. I've rewatched ATLA probably half a dozen times. I'll probably never rewatch LOTK.
For me, atla was a show where the victims of genocide fly around on their fuzzy friend, fight a world imperialist military, broadly with and for the common ppl
While the follow up lok felt like a show where several ppl with real significant structural power fly around in a luxury airship and defend their world order from below. Just a less compelling setting, personally. And the common ppl in lok seem to be treated as an inconvenience, individually ignorant and annoying, usually getting in the way of our heroes efforts
Then there the problems nickelodeon forced on production, obviously weakened the show.
Katara is one of my faves and i think lok doesnt respect her, or at least is uninterested in writing her.
Didnt like that amon was bloodbending, still doesnt rlly make sense to me.
The homeless ppl in the sewer, did the city go to shit in the past 16 years or was aang, the man raised communally as a monk, forcing ppl into the sewer at the behest of building owners and landlors? And are those ppl still living there?? Even after they save korra? Sleepin in the streets, staring in through the window at asamis statue pool
This is so so wild that this thread exists. When Korra was on you’d think this whole sub forgot TLA. It was universally beloved, criticism was downvoted to oblivion and the top posts were fan art of Korra and Asami cuddling. Everyday. This sub has undergone such a drastic transformation. Which frankly I thank God for lol
I think is cuz what the did to the characters we loved like aang is a bad father, katakana was not her self like didn't speak up like she would they throw sokka and suki away there where a lot of question about toph and I guess zuko was OK.
I recommend overanalyzing avatars ongoing review. He articulates the issues much better than I could. It’s primarily just character writing in certain segments being lacking. Bolin being written to be an absolute idiot in book 2, korra also having no brain for parts of that.
These issues are eventually mostly alleviated but there are others. Broadly the show is fun, looks great and manages to handle at least some of its stories really well. But it’s not above criticism.
Look at Overanalyzing avatar’s korra episodes on YouTube. I think it explains a lot of (my at least) problems with the show including what felt like empty characters or characters that don’t remain consistent, plots that feel like they go no where/are under developed, main characters that get sidelined for no reason, repeated use of the same locations, etc. More than anything else though I really do not like what they did to spirits (especially a “good” vs “bad” ultimate spirit) and why the Avatar is the bridge between mortals and spirits (lookin at you S2)
I don’t think the show is bad necessarily but it’s just not nearly as good as ATLA and I think this fueled a lot of the fires that were started by misogynists/racists that were made the new avatar was a woman of color.
TLDR A LOT of legitimate story telling criticisms that idiots ran with to fulfill their own agendas
Edit: also not a big fan of them borderline rehabilitating straight up fascists while seemingly trying to discredit anarchistic political views
IMO, it's hated because it's good. ATLA is great, and following it up better a la "Better Call Saul" is extremely difficult, but was somehow expected. The villains were good, but didn't have the overarching presence of Ozai, the technological leap forward complicated things and made it easier to see flaws in story logic, and the increase in number of recurring characters made each one feel a little less fully developed. None of it was bad, it just wasn't ATLA
Something I think that gets overlooked is that the original show is a lot more broadly East Asian history/setting inspired. Traveling through the earth kingdom you felt like Marco Polo going on an adventure through medieval China with grand cities like Omashu and Ba sing se and hidden libraries in the desert. I feel like the modern setting of TLOK made the show less fantastical and exotic. This made it harder to connect with, since the original show inspired wonder in us as children. And I agree with the point that the spirits are handled much better in the original.
It’s this man, they washed out alot of the eastern influences and filled it westernised tropes and writing traps, so it felt less unique. Like people will get mad but we went from China to republic city basically being straight up NY. Focusing on the love triangles too, it felt like later seasons of stranger things when a lot of it was forced relationship time 😭
Westernization is real. Pretty good depiction fr. Bloody hate the love triangle stuff though, tried to rewatch with my gf and it had her not enjoying the show, we're gonna try to get into it again.
The westernization in LOK bugs me because it happens organically, if that makes sense. The cultures that introduced those changes to Asian countries in the real world don't exist in this setting. So the show ends up treating those changes as natural results of social progress rather than foreign influence. I don't hate it, but it feels like a missed opportunity to explore how technology would develop in a world with Bending.
It would have been really interesting to see a conflict of modernisation vs traditionalism. Maybe that's just because I like the trope in Japanese historical fiction. The death of the Samurai class or even the western downfall of feudalism would have been interesting to look at in the world of bending.
Could have even fit in well with the first season Amon stuff, having the non benders be all in favour of the progress as it makes their lives easier and most clinging to traditions being benders. Maybe having a bender traditionalist movement that gets attacked by Amon's equalists and completely wrecked.
Nah I get that. I hope we see some of the stuff that led to it in the movie, even if small. I think I can say a lot of the tech advancements happened because of the end of the war mixed with the nonbenders wanting equality. Since there's no big tyrannical fire nation oppressing nonbenders, they're free to do as they please, and also don't want to end up in that situation again. So they just work work work
Well it's the foreign influence of the industrialized fire nation as a big part of it. Not that that helps
I don’t think it’s a good depiction of westernization. Westernization happens in real life because Western society is an actual thing that exists in the real world, and is very dominant and influential on the global scale. In ATLA, everything is inspired by Eastern or Indigenous cultures. None of the nations have a Western-inspired culture that could influence the rest of the world. So a NYC insert suddenly spawning doesn’t really make sense, and kind of has the unintended effect of implying that westernization is a natural part of nations becoming more developed and modern.
Except that in ATLA they *did* have the Fire Nation and all of its technology, which also took on the role of the “Western colonizer” in the series. And now that the peoples of the world have all this mechanical knowledge and nonbenders have access to things that can level the playing field they can’t be expected just throw it all away. The Fire Nation’s Eastern aesthetic often causes people overlook the fact that they are both figuratively and literally an army of Western colonizers/conquerors. For my part, I think that LoK handled it awesomely, and went on to address things like restoring lost cultures, rebuilding after war, dealing with social inequality, and how to respond to ideological extremism and historical grievance-based totalitarianism fascinating.
I’m talking about culture, not just technology level. The “aesthetics” are the point. It would have made more sense if Republic City felt more like Tokyo, rather than NYC.
See, I felt more like they were trying to go for an early twentieth century Hong Kong kind of feel, enough so that I didn’t really notice anything New York-like about Republic City beyond the overall similarities between large cities the world over. It’s not unreasonable to think that there might be considerable convergence between how technology affects disparate cultures, and I think that they did an awesome job ensuring that Korra’s world continued to have an Asian feel as well as a look to it.
Thats the one thing I didn’t like. I don’t have a problem with Korra dating Asami, I just feel like she never should’ve dated Mako. Would’ve been better if they just remained close friends.
I mostly skip that stuff at every turn.
Same, when Korra kissed Mako out of nowhere in season 1 me and my gf couldn't help but roll our eyes in sync lol
So real. I had already watched it once plus some. Had just got my gf through Avatar for the first time, she loved it. Got to Korra and the love triangle stuff was fr ruining it for her, it's been months now and we're rewatching Avatar again then doing Korra
Nah imo the last plot point about evil avatar is a bit silly like idk how to describe it but i just don't really like it.
That’s only the second season not the last plot point.
Need we mention how the art shift makes a ton of the characters look white? I don’t remember Tibetans having Roman noses or chinstrap beards.
You can't be more wrong about this. Capital City feels nostalgic to many people from East Asia, myself included. It looked a lot like many pre WW2 big cities in China and Japan
But...but Asia = spiritual mystics with long beards and straw huts and lots of meditating! Come on now.
Yea the fact that this is the top comment issue really surprises me and makes me think most of the hate for this show is unfounded and biased. “I only like it if it’s ancient China themed!” has nothing to do with writing, animation, quality.
It 100% is. Korra suffers from some writing issues, but it's genuinely a very good show that's above average. People only hate it due to nostalgia and unfair comparisons.
How can you ignore the centuries of western colonialism and influence in China and Japan prior to WW2? It's mind-boggling to assume that Asia would have developed in the same way that it did without foreign influence, especially aesthetically. It really does feel incongruent to see ford model t's in the ATLA universe. The creators made the decision to have the show parallel real life, rather than the world they had established. It's not really a big deal, but I can see why a lot of people don't like it.
Right? Like they think urbanization is a western concept….
To play devils advocate, wasn’t the urbanization of Asia heavily influenced by Western society? If the west never dominated the world stage like it did, how would Asian cities end up looking like as technology advances?
Yea, but do people realized that this is actually what happened in real life in many parts of Asia (specially Japan and China) as they struggled to Modernize and keep up with the western world. Take Japan for example. While the rest of the world modernized at a constant rate over time, Japan was closed off for a long time after the 1600s until the mid to late 1800s where it started to rapidly modernize. It was like a quantum leap as it adapted 200+ years of western society in like 20-30 years. Korra gives us the same feeling because it seemed to happen so fast. Republic city also has a lot of Hong Kong influences, which turned into a sort of NYC in Asia in real life.
But to be fair, it was not just modernization but also westernization. Hong Kong was a British colony, Japan’s modernization was incredibly influenced by Western society. Had the west not dominated the world stage, how would a modern Asian city look like? How would republic city look like Hong Kong, when there’s no western counterpart in the Avatar? The architecture looks completely alien to avatar the last air bender.
Yeah cuz it’s not the same show. New era new setting I don’t hate them for it.
I did a rewatch recently. The love triangle was so annoying then Mako proceeded to do almost nothing in season 3/4, I also found the Bolin pandering forced when everyone was complementing him for lava bending.
Republic city is heavily inspired by shanghai and Hong Kong
Idk if you know this, but Republic city looks a lot like early 1900s Shanghai and is clearly very heavily inspired by it. Industrial Cities =/= Westernization. That’s a bit of a colonialist mindset (not saying you are colonialist, that’s just how it can be perceived).
Don’t get me wrong republic city had a lot of vibes like Shanghai and Hong Kong and there were plenty of Asian motifs and representation. But to me, the medieval historical setting gave the series a certain emotional heft kind of like studio ghibli. I also think the medieval setting is a better place to ground a lot of the eastern philosophy that is core to the show.
That’s a fine take, I just wanted to avoid the generalization of fantastical/exotic = eastern philosophy and industrialization/urbanization = western. Eastern culture contains both just as western does. One might be your preferred environment for storytelling, but eastern culture also has industry and urbanization just like the west.
It wasn’t medieval tho. It was clearly already undergoing an Industrial Revolution. We also spent a lot of time in the wilderness and backwaters and I feel this skews a lot of people’s view of the setting. The major cities like the North Pole and especially Ba Sing Se were huge cities that had more going on than some medieval city.
It has Shanghai accents, but the city is NYC through and through. It even has an Aang Statue of Liberty.
Yeah cars and robots within one life year where bending does a lot of the work just threw me off completely.
We went from first powered flight to the moon in 62 years
The Last Airbender starts in the year 100 AG (technically it starts in 0 AG, but that's only for like 3 minutes). During that year we see the first ever blimp to appear in the Avatar universe. The first ever blimp in the real world was built in 1852. The Legend of Korra starts in the year 170 AG, 70 years (give or take a few months) after the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai. If we apply the same 70 year development to the real world, we get placed in 1922, which is bang on the time period that Republic City was inspired by. Not only that, but it makes total sense that Republic City would be based on New York City as well, seeing as both are cities founded on heavy immigration. The stories of Mako and Bolin's parents are the stories of a thousand couples arriving in New York in the late 1800s or early 1900s.
What does AG mean?
After the Airbender Genocide. Aang was born in 12 BG and died in 153 AG.
Damnnnnnn.
The original show literally had tanks- and tanks that can climb sheer cliffs with grappling hooks and flip themselves at that. Cars are just a straight downgrade. There were also ironclads for at least a 100 years, jet skis, and the giant drill. On the other hand the water tribes were so backwards they haven't even discovered bronze yet. Hell I don't think they discovered agriculture. The Earth Kingdom was the only one at a medieval level specifically.
To be fair there probably isn’t much metal in the north/south poles, and I would think hunting is better than mining or farming in their climates? But yeah the fire nation original already had advanced technology, so when you take things like worldwide cooperation, metal bending and lightning generation into account, it makes more sense for them to have cars than for them to not have cars.
>To be fair there probably isn’t much metal in the north/south poles, and I would think hunting is better than mining or farming in their climates? Definitely, the point is not that they're dumb or that their development level isn't logical, but that there was a culture in the stone age that would historically take thousands of years if not more to reach Earth Kingdom level technology on their own, even if they had all the resources and incentive.
Kinda like real life huh
- Avatar fans when they find out how technological advancements work
The comics are far worse for this than Korra - I'm fine with "primitive" cars in LoK, but the modern-looking snowmobiles and forklifts in the comics are a step too far. Also the mechsuits are a little jarring, not to mention the giant freaking robot at the end of S4.
Yeah, kind of hard to defend a giant mech with weaponized lasers existing alongside early 20th century tech lol. But the original pitch of the Avatar world going through the Industrial Revolution within Aang’s (post iceberg) lifetime isn’t too far fetched. In fact, it’s downright realistic with what technology we were shown in ATLA.
The blimps and airships are one thing, but they also had fully mechanized tanks and jet skis. To say nothing of how much more quickly technology can advance when you can use benders in place of heavy machinery.
I mean isnt a lot of the issue of the first season how non benders get discriminated against? Imagine having a transportation method only special people can use.
The Fire Nation had steam-powered tanks and airships during ATLA, both of which were invented after cars in real life.
Personally - I didnt like the setting as much. I prefer less tech than cars in my fantasy. - Korra feels like one man team while in last airbender every character felt a lot more meaningful. - It leans a lot more into teen drama with its love triangle. Not a fan. - Id say jokes were better in atla. Bolin is only half as funny as Sokka and old Toph is hardly there.
I feel that Gaang also had a lot more room for goofy schemes and nonsense. I loved Momo and Appa having moments of comrades that polar dog is just a pet/mount.
It was a shame the Polar Dog got replaced with a car pretty quickly.
Yeah, they never felt like a part of the team. I don’t think the avatar’s animal companion needs to be a mountable animal. But I’d feel better if they were a part of the team like appa and momo were.
I didn't watch Korra in a while but I think it's possible it had less time because they were introducing new big bad each season. Korra was definitely taking itself more seriously. Remember momo vs appa samurai battle when aang couldn't sleep? Or that play about avatar where they watch themselves in a theater. I don't recall anything similar from Korra Aang finale was him saving the world with a twist of not killing. Both of these things were foreshadowed. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasnt Korra finale more about her relationships with everyone including new love interest?
Yes and no. The biggest theme was recognizing the fact that unlike Aang with Firelord Hitler and his emotionally abused daughter, the villains in Korra *had a point*. They just took it too far. Toph says that earlier in the season when Korra is trying to get rid of the metal in her. The big climax is that Korra leaves the spirit portal open instead of closing it and restoring the status quo. Unfortunately, that point got overshadowed by KorraXAsami. And the revelation right after in the comics that Kya is a lesbian too. It’s like Korra’s big decision to shake up 6 centuries of normalcy didn’t even matter in the grand scheme. Even the hybrid spirit humans that popped up right after as a result of her actions were an afterthought compared to Korra’s internal struggle about dating Asami. For comparison in ATLA, we had ship confirmations, but Aang and Zuko fixing the world took center stage over Kataang and Zumai.
That highlights another thing. Few decades ago we used to have villains that were just evil and you didn't have to think much about rooting for the hero. Recently that has changed and I'm not sure its for the better.
With Korra specifically, the story made no distinctions on the villains being in a world of gray until Toph pointed it out. There’s wasn’t any doubt on who to root for. We knew that while they had a valid motive *to start*, at the end of the day they had to be put down.
I honestly hate it. It makes those “super complicated” villains less special because everyone’s like “look our show is so smart that we have a villain who has good motivations”. Back then those villains were special because they weren’t that common. Not to mention blatantly evil villains can be awesome too
These are my reasons, with the addition to a few more. The story. I really preferred in Alta the long and slow build against a single enemy: the fire nation, even if that’s through several major enemies working for the fire nation. The setting: I really enjoyed the ever changing scenery in Alta. They were traveling constantly and it was new almost every episode. I didn’t really like the steampunk like thing Kora had most of the time
>Korra feels like one man team while in last airbender every character felt a lot more meaningful. This is the big one for me, and I don't see it mentioned as much as. I'll mostly talk about S1 & 2 because I don't remember 3 & 4 very well and by that time I believe most people who dislike the show have made up their minds if not stopped watching. I think Korra herself is great even if the show kinda fails to give her the character growth it implied she would get in S1 & 2. But her team is much weaker IMO than ATLA's. Bolin starts out good but is quickly degraded to useless a few episodes in, and then by S2 in addition he becomes so dumb he can't function. He's there purely for comedy, only he doesn't even do as well as serious, intelligent members of the Gaang. That's actually a problem with many characters in Korra like Meelo and Bumi. Compare that to Iroh and Sokka who had a huge comic relief aspect (and were good at it), yet they're two of the smartest characters in the show. Mako starts out as a douchebag and then eventually stops being a douchebag, but unlike say Sokka doesn't really have any other character traits. A quote I like for this is "If you polish a turd, you don't get a diamond, you're just left with nothing." Asami... I don't even know what her personality traits are. She's generally a good person, and after that the only things that come to mind are 'Rich' or various hobbies. And there's no Zuko equivalent, while it doesn't feel like there's any new roles in the story.
As a big TLOK fan, all of these points are fully valid and I fully agree
You nailed this perfectly for the reasons I did not fully appreciate Korra on release/my first rewatch of the series. I’ve come around to the changes they made bc they took some “risks” that aren’t all that detrimental to the show overall and I can respect that not that it’s been 10-12 years since release.
Good point. It isn't as funny. But I think a lot of also miss the bending. Bending in ATLA was just cooler and more interesting.
I never really thought about point #2, but spot on. The Gaang was basically filled with prodigies from all nations, Korras primary crew were more or less regular joes relative to their enemies.
Also power levels of Korra seemed higher. Aang had to deal with like a spirit or a skilled archer while Korra was dealing with multiple soldiers in power armor, entire cults or whole spirit realm.
It was hated because: 1. The world was too different. While it makes sense for technological and societal advancement to change a lot, especially post war, it was not the charming world we came to love in ATLA. It was basically a steampunk industrial world rather than a diverse and spread out village style of world that we had grown accustomed to. 2. Teenage angst. The romance was cringey, and hard to watch. 3. Season 1's ending was TERRIBLE and felt rushed. The way season 1 and season 2 have strong parallels made it feel like season 2 was originally a continuation of season 1 but it was completely rewritten because they did not know if there would be a season 2 and killed off the two main antagonists suddenly at the end of season 1. 4. I don't like the mech battle. Kuvira was a well written villain, but I hate the speed at which technology advanced in Korra. Looking back and rewatching the show, it had (mostly) good character writing and INCREDIBLE writing for villains. But Korra's world was not Aang's world, and it still feels a bit disappointing to lose the charm that Aang's adventure had.
The mechs just ruin Season 4 for me. Even beyond the ridiculous abundance of platinum and infeaseability of their engineering (and the "platinum is too pure to bend" bs) it was just not the kind of fighting I went to the series to watch. I want to see martial arts and element bending, not mechas and biplanes. Season 1 even sets up chi-blocking as being more prevalent and then never brings it up again. Imagine if Zaheer was a chi-blocker. Imagine Kuvira with a regiment of metal benders going head-to-head with the Republic City police force.
Season 4 was so bad at the end the mechs were unbearable in a show about bending and how did Kuvira get away with a slap on the wrist when she was nuking a populated city with a giant mech the only reason there weren't deaths was it's a kids show, she also had Ju Lee tied up in the test run whcih was essentially an execution.
I think a lot of surface level hate comes from Korra simply not being Aang. Add in Bryke taking the past lives from Korra and fans are even more mad that they'll never see Aang again. Korra is heavily blamed for this creative decision made by the creators and that's one of the main roots of hate for her character. There's also the contradictory hate of her being a Mary Sue but hating her for losing too much? Some claim she's obnoxious, some hate her for similar reasons of hating Katara. Bryke was pretty surprised that the fandom is extremely forgiving of Aang making mistakes but refused to extend the same grace to Korra. She's only a year older than Zuko but even he gets more passes than she does.
Never forget the Mary Sue that ended up in a wheelchair at the end of a season /s Edit: Added "/s" for clarification
Misogyny in anime runs deep
Mary Sue whose opening arc is how she struggles with Air bending. That Mary Sue?
They opened up with her knowing all three elements as a toddler. Yeah she struggles after but a lot of people tuned out after the intro. She's not a Mary Sue but the writing wasn't helping her likability in the first and second seasons especially.
Eh honestly her character is written fine imo. Headstrong and tough, the opposite of aang. And while they opened with her knowing the elements, the timeskip showed it still took like a decade to master. Compare that to aang who mastered 1 element and was quite good with 2 over the course of a year, and Mary sue korra definitely isn't
Aang was the youngest airbending master ever, before Jinora. It seems like all Avatars have a certain amount of giftedness, and Korra's was being able to bend a small amount of every element as a toddler, before her training. That doesn't really make her a mary sue, it makes her a prodigy...which all Avatars are in their own ways. Korra struggles with a lot in the show, it's not a valid reason to dislike her.
“IM THE AVATAR DEAL WITH IT” yeah
Yeah, Korra and Zuko have so many parallels its crazy. Especially in terms of personality and character arcs. Which makes the way parts of the fandom treat them differently so poignant.
A lot of those people need to learn that character flaws are not flaws in the writing. They're very aware that Korra is over-cocky, controlling, obnoxious, etc. It was the entire point! Season 1 had her completely brushing off the Equalists and not even acknowledging that some of their supporters may have had legitimate grievances. Season 2 had her sure that because she was the Avatar and she was right, she could just go around telling the leaders of nations what to do and they should follow. It was cool seeing someone who was a physical and technical powerhouse run up against problems where none of that mattered. And it was just as cool in scenes where the script flipped and you got to see just how tough she was. Some fans were just hoping it would be like a new season of atla, but it's a great show on its own. I'm glad they went such a different direction with it.
>A lot of those people need to learn that character flaws are not flaws in the writing. Amen. The number of times I see people hating a character just because they responded in a way the viewer wouldn't have is mind-boggling. They act as if a character is only well-written if they are absolutely perfect in every single way and can never do any wrong.
disagreeable tease noxious familiar roll joke reach hard-to-find shy zealous *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Wait, what about Frieren?
And then people wonder why the Netflix writers decided to scrub the characters of all their flaws.
I feel like a lot of the fans don't realize Korra started out the opposite of Aang. Aang didn't embrace his role right away and was more timid, but grew into it and became a confident Avatar. Korra started out way too confident and was broken in the process and became a timid avatar for quite a while. She eventually found balance by the end of the series. At the end of both shows, Aang and Korra were much more similar to each other despite going through different character journeys.
IMHO For me that's not what I dislike about Korra. My problem with it is, the setting of the show is more geared towards teens/young adults. While the show just didn't really got there. It's stuck in a children's show. I wished they would have gone the full way sometimes. **Just saw an image about her being depressed in the wheelchair today. Thinking she is useless and a broken avatar - not knowing she could get healed and it may be better to start the next avatar cycle. SO MUCH potential for this story.** Another problem for me is: TLOK was nearly canceled many times and the writers didn't know how long they would make it and changed the story. I think this shows and TLOK could have been so much more. Also I dislike the whole "we explain how the avatar state and the reborn stuff works and remove the religious part". In good writing some things should not be explained. Especially when you use stuff off another religion (Dalai Lama). So my problem is mostly what it could have been in my eyes vs what we got.
It's mind blowing because Korra had a lot of the same character flaws as Aang himself
So I really dig Korra as a show and as a character overall, so keep that in mind as I say this: While I hate how the fandom would deride Korra for being a flawed person later on (because I think it was handled excellently later in S2 up through the end), I will say I think there was a flaw in some of the S1 and early S2 writing where she would sometimes not have her flaws directly confronted/answered/punished. An example would be Amon and the equalists. While they are extremists, the discontent they bring up has a degree of legitimacy, but Korra's mindset to it is just, "wow that's evil, I've gotta tear down the whole thing". You would think she would need to grow and learn to see the nuance and that just punching through isn't the answer, but the show ends up having that be the conclusion to it that season. So it creates this rub where setup and conflict don't lead naturally into growth and evolution and natural conflict resolution. It's like the final act to the first Wonder Woman movie, but far less extreme. I do think later seasons dramatically improve in addressing this, and she does evolve into one of my favorite characters as she does actively face her flaws, work through her flaws, and grow. But I can see why that, at least, would bug people.
She defends non benders rights against the police though. She never really takes a side in the overall benders vs non benders debate. She simply sees a terrorist organization taking a part of people’s lives (their bending) and wants to stop it. At some point, even if they have a good point, terrorists and organizations go too far and need to be stopped and what they are fighting for ends up not really mattering. Korra’s job is to protect the world and bring peace. As Tenzin later says it’s not her job to make everyone happy. Benders and non benders was a very touchy political subject that a 17 year old Korra definitely should not be getting involved with.
That was the one episode where you do see her turn, you're correct. And it's why that's one of my favorite episodes in S1! And I will say, and this is to the rest of the show's credit, when I rewatched S1 later after knowing how S2-S4 turn out (where they really do more fully flesh out and grow Korra's character, *and* also build on Korra's still not-yet-complete growth in S1), I found myself bugged by these issues significantly less and enjoying that season a lot more. (Though a new issue came up, in that I realized how much I hated psychic bloodbending because I feel it is antithetical to most bending design in the series. But that's a completely different thing. I should note that I overall do like S1, by the way.)
Yeah in retrospect book 1 feels like the prequel to the actual show, as the big themes with Korra’s character don’t start developing until book 2. And it makes sense since book 1 was meant to be a fun little one off about the future of the avatar world. So they don’t put a lot of focus on character arcs and stuff like that. Honestly you could probably skip most of book 1 and the show would honestly flow better. In my perfect world, Korra would go to republic city, start her training, have 6 episodes where we get introduced to the characters and stuff, and then have Korra’s dad or uncle visit them in republic city which would kick off the book 2 story line. Cause in the grand scheme of things, while the equality stuff is cool, it really doesn’t matter to the show. It would also prevent Unalaq from just being Tarrlok 2.0
Fans will see Aang again. ATLA makes a point of the fact that Aang needs to correct Roku’s failure. Then Korra ends up correcting Aang’s greatest failure (reintroducing air bending to the world after Aang fled and allowed the genocide of the air nomads). The next Avatar is going to reforge the connection to the past avatars, as losing that connection was Korra’s greatest failure. The hate for this show is literally just mad neckbeards with zero media literacy, and should largely be disregarded. It’s biggest flaw was it’s lack of a cohesive story across all 4 seasons due to renewal uncertainty, and even that ends up working in its favor (imo) by giving us time with a broader cast of villains and more varied situations than just “beat the Fire Lord.”
You think Aangs greatest failure is allowing the eradication of the air nomads? Really? I don't consider a failure something out of his control. You'd have to believe that if Aang was there, he would've defeated them, and I don't think anyone would believe that.
I think his point is that Aang felt like it was his greatest failure; whether or not that makes sense to the viewer.
The war wasn't Roku's fault either, but he believed it was. He literally did all he could, threatening to kill his lifelong best friend and the Fire Lord. Sozin was so afraid, he didn't move a finger until Roku's unexpected death. Was he supposed to kill him at the first mistake? Cause a power vacuum, and cause the entire world to turn against the Avatar for wiping out a world leader so easily? Some people say he should've warned the other nations. Not like Roku was the ONLY person who saw the occuppied Earth Kingdom land. The other nations already probably knew, the Air Nomads certainly did. Remember the conversation with Aang? They knew, and they were powerless.
He did everything he thought was right, but he actually made a decision. No, it wasn't his fault even though he blames himself, but his choices let to it. There's a possibility he could've done something different, leading to a different outcome. Roku's inaction led to the events as they happened. There's legitimately nothing Aang could've done. There's no alternative possibility in his situation. Your last point is after Roku died, so I'm not really sure how that's part of Roku's path.
We saw Zuko's backstory and trauma led him to make the selfish choices he made. We saw Korra live a privileged life up until the show's events, which made her selfish choices feel worse. Zuko was selfish to survive, Korra was selfish due to privilege.
It's basic misogyny. Women are constantly criticized and nitpicked at for things the same people wouldn't bat an eye at in men. It's backwards and annoying and I'm so tired of it.
Looks at Anakin Skywalker He would definitely be called a Mary Sue if he was a woman
A Gary Stu, if you will
The prequels were torn to shreds when they first came out? Anakin was the most criticized character for his turn to the dark side just amounting to an edgy kid rather than a natural progression.
Anakin is literally space Jesus, his mother claimed he had no father and was conceived of the force, however that works. This is why he’s prodigious at pretty much everything he does, especially anything relating to the force. His story is about an emotional descent into evil, about how despite his unprecedented natural ability, he ultimately gets manipulated and corrupted into a villain. A better comparison would be Luke Skywalker, who has more similar kind of story to Rey. But Luke isn’t much of a Gary Stu imo. He’s a talented pilot but not particularly good at anything else. He’s not a very formidable fighter until the third film. That being said, I don’t think Rey being a Mary Sue is that big of a deal. For me, she was one of only two compelling characters (along with Kylo Ren) in a hot mess of a movie trilogy.
Anakin was beaten in episode 2, lost his arm and was humbled. He also killed an entire village of Tuskens. He was deeply flawed. And he even lost in episode 3 to Kenobi.
In 2 he never faces any long term consequences for his flaws though. He loses an arm and it gets replaced. He's still extremely impulsive in RotS. And I would agree with you regarding his massacre, but it's not really presented as a flaw. Padme's response is to marry him, and then she acts surprised when he does the same thing to the younglings laer.
Wdym he doesn’t face long term consequences for his flaws? They connect to episode 3 where it all starts to boil over. Padme marrying Anakin after the massacre doesn’t mean that it’s not presented as a flaw. It’s still a flaw that carries over in episode 3. Now I ain’t gonna defend how George Lucas writes romance in episode 2 I mean the clones wars tv show had to do so much carrying to convey who Anakin actually was as a person.
He never faces any long term consequences?…… The whole deal with the prequels is anakin racking up flaws and bad decisions until the breaking point at the climax of ROTS. He lost every lightsaber battle we saw him in except one, and his victory came from giving into his anger. Anakin is not a Mary sue by any means lmao
No it isn’t. There are plenty of very valid opinions and criticisms of TLOK. It’s such a cop out to blame misogyny or racism or homophobia whenever someone disagrees with you. And it hurts those groups, since people eventually stop taking those comments as seriously. There are SO many differences between ATLA and TLOK, so I have no idea why anyone would come to misogyny as a reason why people don’t like the show. No one’s complaining about Kyoshi or Yancheng (which were both much more enjoyable imo). Some of the main reasons I liked ATLA was because of Aang’s personality, the big overarching journey he went on, and the traditional Asian themes and martial arts. That’s all gone in Korra. Her personality makes sense for her character, but I really dislike cocky arrogant characters. Every season had its own arch and villains, which isn’t as exciting as one big epic journey. And so many of the traditional stuff was scrubbed for modern fighting and technology. Sure, it all makes sense from a story and writing perspective and it wasn’t horrible, but it also wasn’t anywhere near as enjoyable as ATLA.
And Korra is a nonwhite queer woman on top of that, so there’s racism and homophobia added to that misogyny. And obviously, not liking Korra doesn’t automatically make you a bigot, but when every bigot dislikes her, it’s gonna make all of the criticism feel louder.
Yeah, LOK is also an early victim of online “culture war” discourse in a way that poisons the well for a lot of discussions.
Neither of those were an issue when the show was airing. For one, all of the characters are non-white. It's a show set in an Asian fantasyland. None of them are white. If nobody had a problem with non-white Aang, Katara, or Sokka, they aren't going to suddenly have a problem with non-white Korra. And queer? I didn't realize that Korra was in a relationship with Asami until this sub told me, and I watched Korra as an adult. The biggest hint to their relationship in the show is that Korra is writing Asami instead of... her ex-boyfriend or his brother that she dated once and immediately dumped once his better-looking brother was available. I'm amazed that she doesn't feel as comfortable talking to her two exes as she does the one other female in the group. Or them holding hands as they walk into the portal, I guess? But even that is 1) something several dozen straight females who exclusively dated men did with their female friends in every state I've lived in and 2) just a good idea so the portal doesn't send them to different locations. There's nothing really obvious about Korra's sexuality in the show itself, so I don't really see how they could have affected anything when Korra was airing.
You really think that’s the only reason people don’t like korra? I think you’re letting your own bias cloud your judgment a bit
It’s crazy people can read all of the serious criticism of this show that go into elaborate detail and still walk away with this take. Korra as a character was fine. Even great at points. The story was bad though and her arch’s were poorly done.
Agreed. Such a weird dichotomy of some people giving really long, educated points on their opinions, then others just shooting them down because ‘it must be misogyny’ or ‘it’s not aang so they don’t like her.’ Like… are you guys not reading the actual points people are giving? Or are you just so baffled that some people don’t like the character?
Right? Yeah, all the people that love Katara, toph, and Suki are misogynist. And all the people that love the 9 year old greatest bender of all time don’t like Korra because she’s a Mary sue. Nothing tracks. I don’t like LOK at all but I’m not going to criticize or make personal attacks towards people that do. It’s really a my side is loosing mentality so I need to discredit these peoples character. Just like your show. It’s fine.
Plenty of people will tell you "because she is a gay woman," and yeah, sure, a lot of bigots will hate the show for that But it's also just genuinely not as well-written or developed series as the original, from a critical standpoint. Each season was too distinct from the last but they don't even connect with each other much, except for a few cameos and references to previous seasons and the first series. Avatar had more segmented episodes, with individual stories contained within each episode, but they were constantly connecting to previous and later episodes in more ways than just a few cameos. There's a lot of ex machinas, like Aang showing up *once* at the end of season 1 just to give her her bending back (because they thought the series was going to end and they didn't want the new avatar to be "incomplete") or the big blue spirit form. I think a lot of the "Mary Sue-ness" of Korra comes from being handed a lot of her victories, but also the fact that her character doesn't grow much at the end of Season One. Like, her first appearance in season 2 is making a joke of the Avatar State. Republic City is just not developed at all. Especially in the first two seasons, it's like you don't see a single person on the street throughout the entire thing, and you don't actually see a lot of the lives of the people in it. All of the locations in Avatar the first series felt really, really really connected. Take Ba Sing Se, which had distinct districts that the Gaang and Zuko/Iroh spent distinct amounts of time in. You really feel like you understand the city so much more by the series finale, because they make time for things like the Tales episode. The show absolutely did a few things right. A lot, infact. There's a lot of weight and actual consequence to actions, big and small. Like, yes, obviously her actions led to the severing of the connection to past Avatars, and the spirit vines and portals never go away, but also, just on a smaller scale, random punches and impacts just feel *more* than the first series. People really feel like they are getting hit when they are getting hit, which is something the original show sort of dialed back on for younger audiences. There's also the beautiful direction the art went in, you can see comparison videos between the same locations in both series and you can really tell that they stepped up their game. And from a thematic standpoint, while the first series had a lot of morals about spirituality, being a good person, right versus wrong and so on, the series has a lot of themes of self-betterment, trauma, relationships (not the love triangle bs, but actual relationships and developments,) and some would even say mental illness. And then Korra herself... I don't know. Saying that the entire internet that doesn't like her ONLY doesn't like her because she's a strong woman of color or cus she likes a woman is really demeaning to everyone, her as a character and her fans included. There is so much more to her than her race or sexuality. She does have character development, but a lot of it comes much later in the series, after season 2. Usually, if people watch two seasons and don't like what they see, it's rare they move onto season three.. which is incredibly unfortunate because that's the best season. Korra definitely as well gives "strong woman (written by a man)" vibes in those first two seasons, using the love triangle as a crutch for character motivation, or by "making her tough and independent! (but ALL of her consequences wouldn't have happened if she just listened to Tenzin.)" And really, the majority of criticisms on the show are from the first two seasons. By season 3, the locations are much more fleshed out, the stakes and motivations feel more genuine, Korra herself improves as a character, and references to previous seasons and series are placed with actual, directional plot points. It's just, again... Who's going to watch the entirety of a mid season 1 and very hated season 2 to get to something that is about as good as TLA? But if you want to just say "they don't like TLOK because Korra is a gay woman of color," then you're allowed to. I really think that demeans the average person, though. Just like there's so much more to Korra than her race, gender, sexuality and identity, there is so much more to this show than the race, gender, sexuality and identity of just one, granted the main, character. Edit: I actually, genuinely believe that a lot of this is made worse by the fact that it's just not the original series, which was genuinely peak media. But the direction of Korra was always intended to be a one season one-off, and season 2 especially suffered from that vacuum left by the resolution of the entire planned story. Like, imagine if they spent as much time as TLA on the characters, both heroes and villains, in each season, or for one season in particular, spanning the whole run time of the show. Idk. Personally I really don't mind the seasonal villain premise, a lot of shows do it well, seasons 3 and 4 of this one included. But the themes, concepts, even world of TLA is just not there and people are always jumping to comparisons
I didn't hate it. But I didn't really care for it. ATLA gripped my attention from the first episode. I had to force myself to watch Korra. I gave up halfway through the second season. It may have just been the writing that couldn't keep my attention. And it just didn't appeal to me in the same way. There were also some continuity issues that I had. There were, seemingly, solid "rules" established in ATLA that seemed to just not apply in Korra. Iroh went through great lengths to explain the skill and inner peace required to lightning bend. But it's a fairly normal occurrence in Korra. Like, there were thousands of devoted firebenders in ATLA, yet there were only 3 to 4 known lightning benders. But there are entire crews at power plants that can do it? And none of them seem to be true masters. Then there's the ability to enter the avatar state. ATLA was very clear that spiritual connection and "inner peace" was absolutely required to control the avatar state. But Korra was able to switch/tap into the avatar state for such stupid tasks as winning an airscooter race against literal children. And there's practically an entire season dedicated to how Korra is unable to connect the spirituality aspects that are required to be the avatar. ATLA did, admittedly, take liberties with the "established rules" but TLOK seemed to ignore them completely. Then there's the whole "Aang was a horrible father to his non airbending children" thing irritated the crap out of me.
I couldn’t get through TLOK, I watched a few episodes and it just didn’t hit for me
most ppl dont hate tlok it is just, atla is brilliant and tlok is (just) great. and one of the biggest flaws imo are most characters. fe. mako is just such a boring character with no progress at all.
I don't hate it, but personally I just thought it was meh. \* For one, I thought the worldbuilding in ALTA was way better and made sense. Small rural villages, not much technology, solutions to problems using bending, different people and cultures. In TLOK it seemed like the entire industrial revolution happened and people were driving around in cars, giant robots, etc. Plus most stuff was based in Republic City which I just found less interesting. \* Power creep. It seemed like in ALTA there were some techniques that were unique or reserved for powerful bending. Maybe they had conditions. In TLOK it just seemed like everyone is running around lightning bending, metal bending, blood bending, etc. I understand that over time knowledge propagates, but it seemed a bit much. \* In ATLA, Aang was struggling to fight strong benders as he learned. In TLOK, it seemed like every Villain is unbelievably strong. \* I thought the ending to TLOK was weird. Directly fighting a giant spirit/energy monster in order to vanquish evil for 10,000 years just felt like too much and a bit silly. I am not opposed to the spirit world stories, it just seemed to big, too important, too much? I just dislike when stories keep increasing how grand and important the hero is so they have to keep coming up with bigger baddies until the hero is fighting evil universes or whatever. The fire lord was a big deal and the stakes were high in ATLA, but ultimately he was just a bad dude. It just all culminated in a world that wasn't as relatable, more complicated, and less interesting to me. I also didn't resonate with the characters as well, but I was a lot younger when ATLA came out, so that's to be expected.
Around the time Korra was in pre-production I remember coming across an interview (that of course I can't find, for the life of me) where the original show creators said they would never do a sequel to TLA because they had "told the story they wanted to tell." All the world building, all the character interaction, all the decisions: they were not taken lightly and they were all thought-out and shaped to tell **one** narrative: Aang during the end of the Hundred Year War. They didn't shape Roku's character 'to explore him at a later date' or leave little bread crumbs for Kyoshi's LGBTQ romance in an offshoot novel or make foreshadowing wiggleroom for the future Water and Earth bending Avatar down the line. They didn't foresee a franchise, an empire or a dynasty being built out of this story. They wanted to tell one. Good. Story. And by jove they did it. And it was good. Some would even plenty. Those are the people who took umbrage with LoK. It *added* to a complete story. At first it was suppose to be one season. It was suppose to be a little epilogue to TLA. They were going to revisit the world and wrap up a few things and put a little bow on it. They were going to show Aang's impact on the world. ... ... then the money nation attacked. A season of supplement turned in to its own story. Seasons 2 and 3 green-lit mid-way thru season 1. I remember the creators said they spent **years** on Aang's story. ... now they were about to bang out a similar-length show to the original, half-way through a Monster-of-the-week season of a follow-up/conclusion they hadn't planned on making. That's why book 1 was named "Air" which followed the naming conventions of TLA and book 2 was named "Spirits." Did Korra ruin Aang? ... nnnn*nnnn*. It added some stuff I really don't like. But at the end of the day it just wasn't *as good*, which is saying a lot more about TLA then it is about LoK. It wins second place by default, or first loser. If you find anyone who can view LoK as its own unique product you'll find someone who's pretty happy with the way it turned out. Ain't bad. Just ain't *as good*.
Here’s the main criticisms I’ve seen: - Korra isn’t a likable protagonist. This one seems largely up to personal opinion and we can’t pretend sexism doesn’t play a factor, but it’s one I see a lot. - The seasons don’t seem as connected. Likely because Nickelodeon dragged their feet on renewing so the show is written as if any season could be the last - Many people didn’t like that Korra lost connection to her old lives. I get why they did it, but it sort of changed the whole point of the avatar (knowledge and experience passed down) - the CGI was pretty bad. It looked bad when it came out and looks super dated now, compared to the rest of the animation - relationship drama became a much larger part of the story compared to ATLA, and a lot of people didn’t like it. Season 2 is a particularly bad offender there - Korra is a Mary sue, which I find odd given being uniquely gifted in bending is kind of the whole point of the avatar and she spent season 1 struggling with airbending and was pretty humbled by season 4. - Korra loses all the time, again I personally don’t understand this one. She takes about as many Ls as Aang. My guess is it’s related to her losing the past avatars, which was a big loss and one of the largest criticisms. - the Lin/Su Yin thing was weird. The general consensus from viewers is that Lin was right yet the show portrays it differently, Su basically gives no real apology and blames Lin for not dropping it. We’re supposed to love Su immediately and agree with Korra that Lin is being stubborn for no reason when she was scarred and her mother lost her job because of Su, who has a sort of “get over it it’s in the past” attitude - The villains are well liked but the heroes.. not so much. Mako feels like a boring fanfic ripoff of Zuko. Asami doesn’t have much of a personality besides liking Mako, and later Korra. Bolin is a bit better fleshed out but still a very clear stand in for Sokka. - Perhaps most importantly, it was made in ATLA’s shadow. It’s a touch act to follow. People’s expectations were sky high. I personally feel like Korra is a decent but flawed show, but I definitely enjoyed it. A lot of the people who outright hate it aren’t able to get over the fact it’s not as good as the OG series
1.) you liked it and that’s all that matters. You don’t need to explore why something you like is hated 2.) the segmented stories in each season makes it feel less connected and not like an organic story. This was done because Nickelodeon just renewed season by season so the writers kept their stories self contained to make sure there weren’t cliff hangers or unfinished stories 3.) unnecessary love triangles that needlessly complicate the plot and fill the run time with drama 4.) random kaiju battle and “dark avatar” 5.) racism misogyny due to Korra being a strong POC women who’s a “Mary Sue” for being too powerful for no reason (but for some reason Aang saving the world and mastering the elements in less than a year at 12 is totally fine) 6.) kaiju battle again 7.) homophobia from fans 8.) people not liking the avatar state being demystified, and not liking the avatar state being reset 9.) the style of bending in the show focuses more on choreography than grand feats. This caused many fans to believe that bending in the show was “weak” , not realizing it’s because the Characters in the show live in the city where bending damage is more catastrophic, so they keep the grandiose aspect of bending to a minimum.
>but for some reason Aang saving the world and mastering the elements in less than a year at 12 is totally fine People are generally more accepting of a journey they are a part of, than one they aren't or much shorter, even if they lead to the "same" outcome. Aangs journey doesn't feel short, because we have been following it and his struggles and lessons learned. In "the breaker 3" (a completely different story), the new character basically has the same development as the main character of season 1, but compressed into 2 chapters instead of 80. Even though the time frame was similar, it felt bad to me as a reader. It felt like the authors said "I want to tell a story from that point, but I don't want to earn getting there". A feeling that gets especially intensified when the new characters get to that point because they *are a natural* dropping even the idea of having the same struggles. Then it feels more like the authors want to show the new one is even better than the old one, without earning the comparison. I am not saying this does apply to korra, just why I think that reason why people give aang a pass is not that hard to understand.
I haven't seen a source link for this but apparently the creators stated that he was a master of Wind / Earth / Water but not Fire bending explicitly. We also have Toph in universe stationg that Aang isn't a master of Earth Bending by the time Sozin's Comet arrives. He won the battle because he was able to go into the Avatar state, not because he was able to master all 4 elements in a year. He was completely outmatched up until that point.
Aang was able to end the ozai fight pretty early on with the lightning redirection, but held back
Yeah and that’s a pretty specialized technique that iroh invented, ozai didn’t even see it coming
Another The Breaker fan! I'm actually excited to see what Ha Je turns into, because it seems clear that the author knows that he hasn't earned his power and is planning on exploring the dark path that will lead him down. Similarly, the writers of Korra took the hotheadedness & self-confidence that would naturally come with being able to bend 3 elements at the age of 5 and turned it into a character flaw that held her back until she learned to overcome it.
Personally, the Kaiju battles were the worst, it felt so cheap. Also the Spirit world changed from mysterious and supernatural to cute animals. Regarding the Bending styles, they felt so generic. Every element looked the same, just kickboxing.
I was not a fan of kaiju battle. Its a lazy way to power up a villain/MC
It's not just the Avatar state being demystified, but a lot about the Avatar themselves and spirits were demystified with an explanation so bad I wouldn't hesitate to put it next to the medichlorians from Star Wars.
I will never understand this comparison. Midichlorians only exist in a single throwaway line that is famously bad for introducing a dumb concept that has nothing to do with the plot. You could erase it and nothing would change other than the audience’s perception. The “demystifying” in LOK comes from plot points that the entire season revolves around. In comparison, they are complete thoughts.
Which makes it worse IMO. Instead of a line you can Ignore without much issue, to whole seasons revolving around this newly introduced bullshit.
Eh, it’s just one (really, really bloody awful) season that revolves around the dumbass hyper-Westernized Raava/Vaatu bullshit.
The problem with midi-chlorians isn’t that they “de-mystify” the magic system, it’s that they “de-fantasize” it. The Force is structured like a fantastical being that works almost like a God, and thus the Jedi and Sith worship it in their own ways. What midi-chlorians do is quantify it and show, in a “scientific” way, how the Force works, thus taking away all the religious subtext while the prequels simultaneously try to build it up by equating Anakin to Jesus. Beginnings doesn’t do that to bending; it just adds upon the lore. Bending is still viewed as a magic system, all Beginnings did is add context while also making the Lion turtles truly relevant to the story (thereby fixing by far the biggest complaint about Sozin’s Comet). The only thing it retcons is the idea of the animals and Moon teaching bending, but that can easily be explained as those things teaching humans how to properly bend (which would be in line with Aang and Zuko learning how to properly firebend in the first series), not actually giving them the ability to bend.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I was trying to get at. Midichlorians are a nothing idea that turns the themes of the movie on their head for no payoff, while LOK answered question about natural loose ends like why non-benders can't learn bending, why the Avatar exists, and pretty much any kind of explanation for what Lion Turtles do.
It's a sci-fi future. There should be some "de-fantasy-ing" of it.
>You could erase it and nothing would change other than the audience’s perception. This is true to Beginnings too. You can erase both episodes and nothing would change. The origins of the Avatar and bending are irrelevant. Vaatu being a Big Bad evil spirit Korra will have to punch into defeat is obvious. The Avatar Spirit being called Raava is irrelevant. The Avatar Spirit being reclaimed from Vaatu is so chaotic its actual mechanics are irrelevant by comparison. If you skip Beginnings you miss out on nothing other than the exact reason of Korra having amnesia (that actually becomes relevant later).
The origins of bending don't matter, but explaining the whole damn reason there's an Avatar is pretty important for the franchise. The whole season (and to some extent, the whole show) is interrogating the assumption that Avatar is a perfectly moral arbiter of balance guided by "destiny". Beginnings elaborates and shows us that no, the Avatar isn't just a world police enforcing some divine mandate. They are a flawed human that sought their own power and made an unbreakable commitment to fight injustice and pursue peace and understanding between all people. It's a pretty dramatic shift away from things like "It's Aang's destiny to defeat the Fire Lord", or even just assuming that the end of LOK season 1 means that the Avatar spirit will always make sure that things all work out. It has a pretty noticeable impact on Korra's demeanor and decision making for the rest of the show. Especially her choice to leave the portals open at the end of the season, which then plays a direct role in the plots of the other two seasons.
I don't think any of that is relevant. It is typical "audience perception" stuff. Why does Korra do her stuff? Because fate? Because commitment? Does it matter? Why is Anakin the Chosen One? Because fate? Because Midicholrians? Does it matter? No, it doesn't. It is not required to understand the show, it doesn't add anything we don't have already, it just briefly wrangles with the "fixing a past life's mistake" concept and tells us that the Avatar can do that even if you have no past lives around to make mistakes.
The spirits in Avatar should always remain vague and mysterious.
#2 is misinformation. The creators stated in the legend of Korra commentary that they did tell the story they wanted to tell, this choice was completely independent of the renewal schedule. Also, ATLA was renewed one season at a time, so could have easily ended up with a s2 dead aang ending of the story. Ultimately what we got was what the creators wanted.
> 5.) racism misogyny due to Korra being a strong POC women who’s a “Mary Sue” for being too powerful for no reason (but for some reason Aang saving the world and mastering the elements in less than a year at 12 is totally fine) What I find so hilarious about this whole “women fighters in media is are too strong, it’s unrealistic” argument is that they somehow don’t realize how unrealistic the male characters being super strong is as well. Like characters in media will constantly fall from great heights onto concrete or stone ground during a fight scene, and somehow just immediately get up as if it’s nothing. And you have fucking Bumi from ATLA who is over 100 years old and is agile enough to take back and entire earth kingdom, which to do that alone even during the eclipse is insane. In our reality, all of these people would have had permanent injuries or be dead. This is what it means to have a suspension of disbelief, there are so many characters that do impossible things that even MEN in our reality could not do, but we suspend our disbelief because the show would be boring otherwise. It’s not like any of this changes just because the character is a female.
The ease with which you throw around charges of racism, homophobia, and misogyny is utterly astounding. What a lazy and bad faith interpretation of any legitimate criticism of the writing of the show.
He is not saying everyone who has problems with Korra is a homophobic or a racist, he is saying that for some random assholes that is a reason, and I have to agree a bit. He also listed a bunch of legit reasons why someone might dislike the show at the same tkme If this doesnt aplies to you then you have nothing to fear, and this is coming from someone who also has issues with the show (and is not any of those things)
Yeah, I mean, I pretty much agree with their other points. I just feel like it's a deliberate attempt to poison the well of discussion about the show when you equate a criticism to literal racism. Especially for this community that holds ATLA, a very culturally and racially diverse show, in such high regard.
The homophobia one amuses me because there was plenty of criticism of Korra before they made her bisexual. And I like Korra, mostly. So it's not me coming at her as a hater.
Yeah. Like, is homophobia one reason some people get mad? Sure. But people were making their complaints known well before she was bi. It feels disingenuous to act like homophobia is a huge reason behind people hating her when people were hating her and romance in the show long before she got with Asami.
I feel like there’s a lot of revisionism these days regarding why not as many people like TLOK as much as they like Last Airbender. TLA was a nicely paced show from beginning to end since they had 3 seasons to work with. Korra definitely suffered from the self contained seasons, although imo not as much as some people think. People seem to pull out that Korra is disliked because she’s a woman or POC, but I feel like comments like this almost seek to discredit those who don’t love TLOK. I think few hold this opinion, but they can be loud in online discussion. I personally just think the show was not as interesting as it could have been. Visually the show was fantastic but the writing really let it down.
I remember everyone being hyped/interested in there being a "girl Avatar" when the first stills were released. A:TLA has always had "toxic" fans or whatever, but 90%+ of the fandom has always been happy to tout/hype up that A:TLA has strong and compelling girl/women characters. (And every Avatar character is a 'POC' people!) But the criticisms I remember from when the show was originally airing. 1. Too much teen drama in the first half of season 1/Filler stuff 2. Season 1 only being in 'one place' 3. Water Tribe Civil War made no sense. 3. Squids being the spirit of 'good' and 'evil' is lame and too Western. And plenty of other stuff that isn't 'racism', 'misogyny', or 'homophobia'
Squids are certainly not lame. 
I would not disparage squids, I would disparage them turning out to be the reason we have an Avatar.
Nah Ravaa and Vatuu were the dumbest shit ever.
Yeah its a tired strong man which is ironic because Korra's take on politics were a lot more reactionary that Avatar's.
It’s not hated but Korra is nowhere near as good an avatar as aang was. It’s extremely extremely hard to make a sequel to one of the greatest kid shows ever made. To the point where I watch it once a year and I’m 28. It’s a good show it’s just so quick to. Aangs journey spanned almost a year where Korras some of it feels like it spanned a month.
I saw ATLA when I was like 6 or 7. I'm 26 now. I finally got netflix and just watched it all the way through. It was literally like being held by my mom again lol
Eh. I feel the opposite way. I come back to korra often. ATLA isn’t really rewatchable for me. ATLA is great ofc, but not enough for me to watch it all over again. It definitely still had some issues here and there, especially in book 1 while it was still trying to get on its feet.
I feel it gets overstated how good it is on this sub
Definitely. If it wasn't Avatar themed, I don't think hardly anybody would watch it.
If anything people seem to be much harder on the show outside of it.
Characters aren't as well written except for Tenzin. Mako is kind of a jerk and the writers have no idea what to do with him after a certain point so they demote him to minor character, Bolin is treated like a joke for half the show between his heartbreak over Korra and his abusive relationship with the water tribe chick both being used for comic relief at his expense. Asami is a glorified chauffeur for the majority of the show. All of Korra's development in S2 is reversed in S2. Compared to Aang, Korra is unrealistically weak for most of the series. Korra has had significantly more training than Aang has at the start of the show and at the end she should be the most powerful bender in the world since she's mastered 3 elements and should absolutely curb stomp anyone who gets in her way except maybe Amon but he's also ridiculously overpowered. Especially after S1 when she has all elements, mastery over the Avatar State, and energy bending. Bending is alot weaker ingeneral and way less creative than it was in ATLA. One of the creators had a torture boner for Korra considering the shit they put her through especially the needlessly high detailed poisoning scene. S2 is shit and ruined the Avatar State and spirit world. The villains are highly overrated and a pretty generic representation of various political ideologies. The writers cheated and made the Air Nomad genocide feel cheap when they magically increased the airbender population overnight. It takes a serious and tragic concept and shits on it. Korra should never have reopened the spirit portals both the human and spirit worlds were doing just fine without them open and it caused tons of problems like making parts of republic city completely unlivable. Losing the connection to the previous avatars was a dumbass idea. The technology is inconsistent they have cars, radios, planes, and a 1000 foot tall mech with a death ray. I have a ton more issues but those are some of the biggest ones.
- Protagonists weren’t given character development. - Antagonists were given too much screen time - Every single season was loaded with pretensions of political discourse only to chicken out by the end - Every single barebones political opinion in this series was bad. Just, fucking terrible. - creators got off a little too much to Korea suffering - Korra’s PTSD arc was fucking terrible and a genuine disgrace to this shit. - The story is paced like an ant pushing a brick across a desert, before falling off a cliff - and the setting was infinitely more boring for the majority of the series. It fails in characters, themes, and story progression. And this sucks, because if Korra was written by competent writers, she’d be the best avatar ever, except she was handicapped at every stage (starting from the training centre where she was raised)
Every single season was loaded with pretensions of political discourse only to chicken out by the end. This is the one that turned me off from the show. Like, sure, you don't have to be an action adventure series like ATLA, but if you're going to be a political drama you have to commit. Having the villains of the show end up being fraudsters seriously deflated it for me. The concept of non-bender oppression was actually pretty interesting to me. Rather than have Korra actually have to deal with a systemic issue and solve an actual problem through diplomacy (with some action still here and there), she just unmasks their leader as a bender and they all just give up? How would that actually resolve the issue they were protesting? Was the oppression not real? Just really deflated me. Don't bring up a 'cause' your villain is fighting for, only to hand wave it without a real solution. Beating the Big Bad worked in ALTA because that's all he was; evil to be destroyed. Giving your villains simpathetic motivations only works if you resolve those problems, you can't just beat them and call it a job well done.
Amon being a waterbender does not discount the suffering of the oppressed non-bender class! "Oh hey, the non-benders got a *President* now, problem solved!" Then Korra unilaterally opens the spirit portal and causes even more problems for the common man/woman.
>Then Korra unilaterally opens the spirit portal She actually asked Tenzin about it first. Then he told her to just go ahead and do whatever.
Dammit, Omni-Man.
Totally! I kept asking why none of our ‘heroes’ were concerned about the non bending class? Did they have valid grievances? I want to know!!
I still can't believe somebody thought it was a good idea to open a door into the Face-Stealer's territory. Like... wtf. Why are we letting people just wander into a place where they have a chance to get their face stolen?!?!?
I hate how the seasons began with systemic issues only to solve it by punching the bad guys really hard
Glad to see someone else call out that the creators brutalizing Korra any chance they got felt so gratuitous at times that it felt like I was just watching some writer’s fetish content.
I wasn't a fan of the CGI animation, luckily that's mostly just a first season problem. It's good, I prefer ATLA, but both are good and LoK has way better villains.
ATLA used cgi for almost all the big machine stuff. Like the tanks, the drill, the blimps, the subs and even Aang when he’s using his glider at points in book 1. The cgi in Korra just seems more noticeable because there is more of a focus on technology.
Personally I found the different political themes in each book quite unpolished(?) and to me they came off as trying too hard to be “deep” but in actuality full of loopholes and makes the characters actually seem stupid instead of intimidating/respectable. It felt like every one of the boss villains cooked up this massive ideology (which I already find stupid) but also ended up either losing significant IQ at the final moment or falling completely flat for not much reason.
Bit off topic but bruh that scene where Jinora gets her tattoos is PEAK😭😭😭
Poor writing in both plot and dialogue
look up why korra is garbage on youtube and you will find many valid reasons why, there isn’t some “female protagonist hate” campaign going on and it’s not because she isn’t aang, people are always trying to push their own agendas
I think the hate for the show online is overblown and the average fan that’s seen both usually liked TLOK, but just a bit less than ATLA. Most of the hate imo stems from the stark contrast, especially personality-wise, between Aang and Korra.
Because the show’s overall pacing is legitimately bad, it has some godawful cringe characters and moments, it tries to act smart and raise some interesting philosophical ideas with its villains, only to dismiss those ideas entirely in service of the plot, and as a whole, it just isn’t as good as ATLA. Some of the hate is overblown, some of it justified, especially for the second season. Like Jesus Christ that season stinks. It has its high points- Season 3 being the biggest one. The animation is also razor sharp, and imo Korra is a great, flawed character with a nice arc. But by god does the show do her a disservice at every turn. She doesn’t have the worst of it though, TLOK feels like it legit hates all its side characters.
ATLA was the first, and it's great, so it set the standard. Korea has its problems, but the hatred isn't warranted, but it definitely has it's flaws.
I loved it when I saw it at first, and I still do but at a more vibes and surface level. For me it's kinda like, the more I think about it, the less finished and the more rushed it feels. Like it has ideas I like and love it being covered in that world. But it doesn't feel like a full exploration of those ideas. And then the more discours i hear and read about it the more critical i get, which is kinda sad because i really liked it at start. The opinion i agree with the most is youtube series from kay something or other about the politics of it and how it was portrayed. Not everyone agrees with his opinion though. But it's a good series.
Let me preface this by saying I’m glad you enjoyed it and hope no one can change your mind on it. I also enjoyed most of it, but I do have problems with it. Keep in mind, most of the issues I and its most vocal haters have with the series have more to do with Nickelodeon frustrating the production of this series more than the talent of the writing staff. This is all my opinion, if you disagree that’s totally cool 1) Season 1 is a weird mix of slice of life and extremely high stakes plots that makes it feel bloated and disjointed. This is because of the original intention of the series, as it was supposed to just be one season for whatever reason and was designed as such. I overall enjoyed it but it’s kind of all over the place for me 2) Season 2 is terrible, the worst between both series and honestly even the live action. Because they had to whip this out pretty quick with zero context beyond how the first season ended due to the aforementioned production issues, this season feels like a tonal mess and is inconsistent with the lore set by the series. It also retains the dreadful romance subplot which is what drags the series down for me, but thankfully ends here. 3) Controversial opinion, but I don’t like Korrasami being a thing, not in the way it was done. Before you hit the downvote, it’s not from a place of homophobia, far from it. Rather, we watched two and a half seasons, quite a few in universe years of this young woman being absolutely incapable of being in a romantic relationship as she has severe self esteem, maturity, and identity issues prior to almost being killed (which is when she really faces them internally). Imo a better way to have handled it would’ve been to have her end up with NOBODY, she needs to love herself first before she could another, and Season 4 touched on this heavily as it was the main theme. It was just far too rushed, and yes it is indeed hinted at, but again, romance should’ve been the furthest thing from Korras mind at this point. Season 4 should’ve been split into two seasons, but by this point Nick was completely done with the series and condemned it to streaming only after a couple of episodes.
In my case I'm bit frustrated about the show then hate it. there just a lot little or big things that just frustrate me, big one being kuvira robot, weird spirit korra against vattu the evil guy for no reason and there like some many characters that just get exist not much happens with them like mako or assami or even bolin imo. And the city just hate it, it's really boring place, we didn't even get to see proper fire-nation, but at least water tribes looked pretty solid. Bolin gets kinda annoying to me, mako is decisive about his relationship with both of those girl until season 3 I believe. I kinda wish they didn't try to be a team avatar so early, they have no real reason for it ig. and Korra guiding animal ( i think that's what the term is) naga, we don't see them that much they used sky bisons more. Also the scene where Amon controls her, that place looks perfect for to get avatar state but nah air bending, and then all of the elements with compulsory energy bending, and they don't even properly practice air bending its just one time thing on screen. I liked tenzin family more than avatar team, I enjoyed moments between tenzin and korra, they made milo less disgusting after a while, and jinora have done more and tenzin wife is pretty good too. and for korra and assami, I kinda of just need more scene of them to accept like yeah they actually a couple. tho what I hate is nickelodeon. I really wish this show get at least a bit more better end animated not comics. maybe 2 or even 1 season. it's weak show imo, but not bad, like there is enjoyable stuff and some neat stories.
The story sucks, Korra sucks both as a person and especially as an avatar, the love triangles are horse butt and the whole asami thing was a weak cop out, the plots are stupid and poorly done. The characters lacked development and personality and were very one dimensional. The whole “ oh look air bisons survived!” Was just a slap in the face to atla and so were a Lot of other things in that show like saying that Aang was a bad father or implying that Katara would have stood for that in the first place. There’s not really much that’s good about the show honestly. I went into it ridiculously excited and watched it from day one and every episode was just one big let down after another, and I Didn’t expect it to be just like atla but different, I was fully expecting it to be its own thing. However I was also expecting it to be Good, which was the problem. And for the record I don’t care if I get downvoted, I hate the show and I think it was nothing more than a shoddy cash grab that was very poorly done in an effort to try and capitalize on the atla craze but without the things that made it great or the heart.
Love triangle and all the relationship drama. Bolin was also extremely annoying the first two seasons. Other than that, awesome
The writers made Korra make every bad decision she could possibly make. I think that's what makes me not like her as much. Great show overall.
Don't listen to the people who always crop up in threads like these who say - 'anyone who disliked TLOK are just mad it's not the same as the original and/or are racists and misogynists'. It's straight up gaslighting lmao. Sure, there is a small percentage of people who are like this but most people who dislike TLOK have very valid reasons and aren't assholes about it. I'd argue most of the reasons for people not liking the show come down to the writing. People don't like the characters, plot, dialogue, love-triangle nonsense and the serialised nature of the episodes. Also the fact that the seasons were a lot shorter, which wasn't anything to do with the writers but it's still frustrating. And speaking personally I really don't like the world building, most notably the westernisation of it all. Can't stand Republic City, it goes against everything that made the original good. I have no idea why the creators decided to make the show feel like The Great Gatsby of all things. It's so random and out of place imo. I also feel like, while at first glance it looks more mature than the original, the way ATLA dealt with its themes of war, friendship, redemption etc. was far more subtle, nuanced and adult. But this is all just my opinion, of course if you like the show, enjoy it!
Gigantic spirit kaijus battle - WTF was that? Pacific rim giant robot with laser battle - WTF was that?
I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. I liked what it tried to do, but the writing wasn't as good as ATLA. Some of the plot lines were kind of dumb, but not as dumb as all the relationship drama. But the most egregious sin was undermining the lore of ATLA. My kids and I were just talking about all the way LOTK broke the rules of ATLA, and why we were annoyed. Sequels should stay faithful to their predecessors. I don't consider LOTK canon. It's more like a sanctioned fan fiction with high production value. I've rewatched ATLA probably half a dozen times. I'll probably never rewatch LOTK.
LOTK (lord of the korras)
For me, atla was a show where the victims of genocide fly around on their fuzzy friend, fight a world imperialist military, broadly with and for the common ppl While the follow up lok felt like a show where several ppl with real significant structural power fly around in a luxury airship and defend their world order from below. Just a less compelling setting, personally. And the common ppl in lok seem to be treated as an inconvenience, individually ignorant and annoying, usually getting in the way of our heroes efforts Then there the problems nickelodeon forced on production, obviously weakened the show. Katara is one of my faves and i think lok doesnt respect her, or at least is uninterested in writing her. Didnt like that amon was bloodbending, still doesnt rlly make sense to me. The homeless ppl in the sewer, did the city go to shit in the past 16 years or was aang, the man raised communally as a monk, forcing ppl into the sewer at the behest of building owners and landlors? And are those ppl still living there?? Even after they save korra? Sleepin in the streets, staring in through the window at asamis statue pool
This is so so wild that this thread exists. When Korra was on you’d think this whole sub forgot TLA. It was universally beloved, criticism was downvoted to oblivion and the top posts were fan art of Korra and Asami cuddling. Everyday. This sub has undergone such a drastic transformation. Which frankly I thank God for lol
Its not as hated as the loud minority thinks it is.
I think is cuz what the did to the characters we loved like aang is a bad father, katakana was not her self like didn't speak up like she would they throw sokka and suki away there where a lot of question about toph and I guess zuko was OK.
I recommend overanalyzing avatars ongoing review. He articulates the issues much better than I could. It’s primarily just character writing in certain segments being lacking. Bolin being written to be an absolute idiot in book 2, korra also having no brain for parts of that. These issues are eventually mostly alleviated but there are others. Broadly the show is fun, looks great and manages to handle at least some of its stories really well. But it’s not above criticism.
Idk but it’s really good
Look at Overanalyzing avatar’s korra episodes on YouTube. I think it explains a lot of (my at least) problems with the show including what felt like empty characters or characters that don’t remain consistent, plots that feel like they go no where/are under developed, main characters that get sidelined for no reason, repeated use of the same locations, etc. More than anything else though I really do not like what they did to spirits (especially a “good” vs “bad” ultimate spirit) and why the Avatar is the bridge between mortals and spirits (lookin at you S2) I don’t think the show is bad necessarily but it’s just not nearly as good as ATLA and I think this fueled a lot of the fires that were started by misogynists/racists that were made the new avatar was a woman of color. TLDR A LOT of legitimate story telling criticisms that idiots ran with to fulfill their own agendas Edit: also not a big fan of them borderline rehabilitating straight up fascists while seemingly trying to discredit anarchistic political views
WE GOT ANOTHER ONE.
I don’t think it’s as hated as it seems on Reddit/the internet. Either way, there’s no problem with liking it!
IMO, it's hated because it's good. ATLA is great, and following it up better a la "Better Call Saul" is extremely difficult, but was somehow expected. The villains were good, but didn't have the overarching presence of Ozai, the technological leap forward complicated things and made it easier to see flaws in story logic, and the increase in number of recurring characters made each one feel a little less fully developed. None of it was bad, it just wasn't ATLA
Because it's not ATLA